Music Copyright Society of Kenya CEO Ezekiel Mutua has planned to go after politicians who are playing music, both local and international, in their events without licenses.
According to Mutua, campaign season is one of the periods that artists need to rip big from their labor because of the frequent use of their songs.
“Because their songs are being used. You see people passing with cars playing hatupangwingwi, nobody can stop reggae. They need to have licenses before playing those songs because they belong to musicians, even the international ones, we have bilateral agreements with them,” he said during a sensitization event on copyrighted musical works in Machakos county.
Mutua added that many politicians in Kenya have not been licensed to use the music. The society has however warned them and given them one month grace period to comply with that failure to which they will have to face the law.
Those who have not been licensed but played the music previously are no exception as they will have to pay for it.
“Anyone who would not have paid at the required time, our invoice has a one-month grace period, we will start arresting them. We have recorded many of them,” Mutua noted.
He further referred to the issue as an integrity one while calling upon IEBC to help in achieving their targets.
“If someone is exploiting musicians , I think Chapter 6 should be applied because he/she is stealing people’s property. That makes them thieves, they use our songs in campaigns and win, you don’t qualify if you have not paid a license it means you are a thief and should be interrogated,” Mutua said.
He added that they are only concerned about politicians as of now even though music is played at private events including weddings, funerals and birthday events.
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