The copyright regulator has revoked the licences of three royalty distributors for failing to meet its conditions on administrative costs and royalties.
The Kenya Copyright Board had earlier this year issued the three Collective Management Organisations with provisional licences as it allowed them to meet the conditions set out by the board.
The three are the Kenya Association of Music Producers (Kamp), Performers Rights Society of Kenya (Prisk) and the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK).
In a statement, Kecobo executive director Edward Sigei said the revocation follows show-cause letters issued to the CMOs for non-compliance.
Specific conditions not adhered to are a breach of administrative cost limit and diversion of royalties into an undeclared account whose operations are not monitored by the board.
The board also noted in a meeting held on August 11 that the CMOs distributed Sh41 million (35.9 per cent) instead of Sh79 million (70 per cent) from Sh114 million collected at the end of July 2021.
The board clarified that the distribution excludes money received and expensed in other accounts out of Kecobo's monitoring system.
Following the revocation, the collection of royalties has been suspended for three months or until further advised.
The board further reiterated its commitment to work with the relevant ministries to reform the CMO legal structure.
This is aimed at preventing the recurrence of the misuse of funds by CMOs.
