Hatibu Abdalla Muhammad and Lincoln Kariuki moved to court accusing Kecobo of renewing the licences granted to three collective management organisations (CMOs), in the absence of a board of directors.
Justice Jairus Ngaah granted the duo the permission to challenge the decision to renew licences granted to the Performers Rights Society of Kenya, Music Copyright of Kenya and Kenya Association of Music Producers.
“I direct the main motion to be filed and served within 7 days of the date of this order,” the judge said while directing that the case be mentioned on October 2.
The two allege in the petition that Kecobo has for the last seven years renewed the licences of the three entities to their detriment and that of thousands of copyright holders.
They said the certificates of registration were issued on May 5, 2023, and the extensions were communicated by a notice on June 21, to the three CMOs.
The licences are meant to run May 4, 2024, but were issued in ‘convoluted circumstances on various dates’.
“The 1st Respondent (Kecobo) has continued to renew licences to the Interested Parties even though they have been in breach of the Copyright Act and the Copyright (Collective Management) Regulations, 2020 as well as the conditions of their licences,” Mr Abdalla said in an affidavit.
He said members have been prejudiced over time by the dereliction of duty by the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Sports and Arts as well as the board in their oversight, regulatory and enforcement roles.
Mr Abdalla said the term of the last board of directors expired on October 29, 2022 and Kecobo has not had a board of directors since then.
The two also allege that one of the CMOs has not been meeting the requirement to distribute 70 percent of the revenue collected, while another has been found to be in breach of its fiduciary duty to copyright holders as forensic audits have previously unearthed misappropriation of revenue belonging to artists.
“This licence flows from the law and its breach should be remedied by the sanction created in the law. In this case, that remedy would be revocation of the licence,” he said.
