Timson Kuria, popularly known as Bamboo, has sued Safaricom for using three of his songs as Skiza tunes without his consent.
According to Bamboo, the telecommunications service provider and two other companies, Bernsoft Limited and Mtech communications Limited used his songs for five years.
Bamboo wants Safaricom and the other companies to pay him all the money they have collected by using his songs without his authority.
Bamboo told the court that the companies have been using his Mama Africa, Yes Indeed and Move On songs.
Through his lawyers Chege and David Katee, Bamboo wants the companies to provide in court all the accounts and records of sale proceeds realized from the download and sale of his music.
The artist says that Safaricom and Mtech used his music without seeking and obtaining authorization and license from the musician whereby they jointly reproduced, published, broadcasted, distributed, exhibited, sold and commercially benefitted by uploading the said musical works on Safaricom Skiza tune platform.
Before Justice Joseph Sergon, Bamboo said that he suffered loss of revenue arising from the inability to assign the rights infringed by the three companies to other parties.
“I lost the exclusive right to control and license the production of my music work despite using a lot of resources and time to produce them,” he said.
He also said that that his music works were being downloaded at 75 cents per song from 2009 to 2014 but Safaricom removed the songs from its portal after being served with a demand and notice of intention to sue served by the musician.
According to the court documents, the musician claims that Safaricom acknowledged that they hosted the works in question on its www.skiza.safaricom.com platform but later denied liability for the infringement and refused to make good the claims by the musician alleging that it had received the said music from the other two companies.
The musician is seeking to be compensated for the damages and loss he suffered by not being able to license the said musical works to different companies and entities.
“In this regard, the plaintiff avers that Airtel Kenya cancelled negotiations to enter into a contract for the said musical works after discovering that they were being offered by 1st defendant Skiza platform,” the court documents read in part.
Mama Africa is a collaboration between the musician and Akon and was recorded in 2007.
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