Raila pays Sh500, 000 to artistes for campaign songs licence

Azimio la Umoja presidential candidate Raila Odinga has paid Sh562,500 to the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) as licence fees for music to be used in his campaigns.

His daughter Winnie Odinga paid the money on his behalf when she met MCSK Senior Licensing Officer David Kiragu over the weekend, becoming the first 2022 presidential candidate to comply with the reinstated music licensing laws.

With the licence, MCSK says, Mr Odinga is now free to use any music of his choice, local or international, in his campaigns ahead of the August General Election.

“It's gratifying to see that presidential candidates are complying with the copyright law by paying for music used in their political campaigns,” MCSK confirmed.

“We thank Winnie and the entire Raila Odinga's presidential team for this gesture and urge other political candidates to emulate them by making payments for the use of copyrighted musical works in their campaigns.”

The move comes just days after MCSK – one of the three Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) that collect fees for musical works on behalf of authors, composers, arrangers and publishers in Kenya – reinstated music licences that were suspended in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

The payment by Mr Odinga adheres to Section 38 (c) of the Kenya Copyright Act 2021, which stipulates that “any person who causes a literary or musical work, an audio-visual work or a sound recording, to be performed in public at a time when copyright subsists in such work or sound recording and where such performances is an infringement of that copyright, shall be guilty of an offence”.

“Unless he is able to prove that he had acted in good faith and had no reasonable grounds for supposing that copyright would or might be infringed”.

Offenders face a fine not exceeding Sh500,000 or a jail sentence of four years or both.

During the 2017 election campaigns, the other two CMOs – the Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP) and the Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK) – jointly released the same tariffs charged for respective licences.

At the time, presidential candidates parted with Sh400,000 each for the KAMP or PRISK licence, while candidates for the Senate were charged Sh100,000, woman representative and MP Sh50,000, and ward representative Sh12,500.

But the fees did not apply to live performances by artistes at campaign rallies, as politicians had to negotiate payment terms for each act.

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