A section of musicians and content creators in the North Rift regionn have faulted a recent move by the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) to suspend operating licenses for all the Collective Management Organizations (CMOs).
Speaking to the press in Eldoret town the press led by William Getumbe they termed termed the move as ill-advised and ill intended.
“Suspending licenses for CMOs would mean our content will be used freely without the collection of royalties.KECOBO should have taken action against directors or CMOs whom we accuse of being the cause of problems that we are facing.
They said withdrawal of creative license from CMO’s is not a solution to the problems that they are facing.
“Legal action should be taken against CMO directors, so that they can account for all the money that they have allegedly stolen from the musicians and content creators. Whereas Kecobo has been doiing so on regular basis that is not a lasting solution to the creative industry,” he added.
They said KICOBO should have suspended all CMO’s leadership and called for immediate elections and forensic audit of CMOs from 2010 to date should also be done.
“They should have helped restore sanity to the CMO’s by giving their hand in the implementation of their demands such as constituion ammendemnet,vetting of CMO members, demanding accountability in the revenue contribution among others,” he said.
They wondered what thye have taken against those directors who have stolen money or misues their office but only retaining the stus quo of leadership and management management og CMO’s.
“We demand accountability from both KECOBO and our CMO’s leaders and both local and international collection revenue. They should stop covering up for cartels leadership and clean up both in mess and join. There is no way KECOBO can be blaming the CMO’S leadership and at the same time secretly be chatting the way forward for CMO’s,” he added.
They said CMO’S belong to members and not directors and that KECOBO is punishing the members while dining with the directors of CMO’s and thye should come clean with its intention of deregistering all CMO’s and forming new ones.