Telecommunications service provider Safaricom has agreed to pay artistes a whopping Sh152 Million as outstanding dues from their Skiza tunes.
Safaricom had initially offered to pay the mucisians through their Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) which are: Music Society of Kenya (MCSK), Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP) and Performers' Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK).
The proposal, however, faced stiff opposition from some entertainers who had initially engaged the services of middle men to pay them their royalties.
The Collective Management Organizations were established in law by the Copyright Act 2001. These are non-profit entities whose principal objective is to collect and distribute royalties.
MCSK is a CMO for authors, composers and publishers, PRISK protects performers’ rights while KAMP represents producers/sound engineers.
Some entertainment performers had earlier moved to court, seeking to have Safaricom compelled to pay them directly instead of channeling their royalties through the CMOs.
“Unfortunately, as soon as we signed that agreement, which would have allowed payments to flow directly to these management organisations an injunction was on Safaricom forcing us not to pay any monies to the Cmos and because of that Safaricom has not been able to issue the money to the artistes,” said Stephen Chege, Director of Corporate Affairs at Safaricom.
Mr Chege further reiterated Safaricom's intention to ensure that the entertainers benefited from the Skiza Tunes, adding that the telecommunications giant was more than ready to comply with a court ruling slated for Friday, 15th April 2016, on whether the artistes should be payed directly or through CMOs.
“We have been ready to make these payments for a very long time so as soon as the court order is released we shall have our lawyers advise us how to make the payments… Our intention is that the artistes benefit from the platform,” Chege stated.
