• Namwamba said talks are ongoing with the Kenya Revenue Authority on how the levy will be enforced and the collected revenue funneled to artistes.
• "If we are able to launch this one, the collection volumes of royalties will more than go tenfold.
Image: SCREENGRAB
Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba has revealed that the government is contemplating introducing a new levy to boost royalty collection for digital content creators.
The CS who heads the Youth Affairs, Arts and Sports docket said the government wants to introduce Blank Tape Levy on all imported recording gadgets like cameras and phones.
"Any gadget that has recording capability imported into this country is levied. Any gadget that can be used to record or transmit content, we have put a levy on it," he explained.
Namwamba revealed that the government is already in discussions with the Kenya Revenue Authority on how the levy will be enforced and the collected revenue funneled to artistes.
"If we are able to launch this one, the collection volumes of royalties will more than go tenfold. We have calculated in transit billions of shillings. I will be glad to see that money collected by KRA and then funneled to artistes," he said.
Namwamba was speaking during an interview with Kenyans.co.ke on Friday.
He said the Blank Tape Levy will be critical in trapping royalties that go uncollected when creative works like music are played in avenues such as political rallies where it's hard to collect royalties.
"My friend Reuben Kigame, he tells me I hear my music playing everywhere, popular song 'Hunianchi', 'Enda Nasi'. He tells me even in your political events Ababu I see you playing 'Huniachi', I see you playing 'Enda Nasi', then he says 'where is the money?'
"We must create a system where Reuben is able to get money from his music playing out there," Namwamba said.
The signing of the Kenya Copyright Amendment Bill of 2019 was seen as a new dawn for creatives as it empowered the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) to be directly involved in the governance and management of revenue collection in the music industry while playing a regulatory role.
Artistes have, however, over the years been at loggerheads with the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) over what they termed as peanut payouts for their creative works.
MCSK is one of the collective management organisations (CMOs) that's mandated with the collection and distribution of royalties for authors, composers and publishers.
The other CMOs are Performance Rights Society of Kenya (PRiSK) and the Kenya Association of Music Producers (Kamp).
But despite the legal conceptualisation of copyright and related rights, artistes have continued to lament about low royalties even as their music continues to enjoy massive airplay.
Namwamba said the government is revamping the system of royalties collection to put to rest the perennial complaints which partly emanate from squabbling between the CMOs.
"That's where the problem is. We are putting in place a digital system, first of all we put the CMOs together, now we want to institute a digital system so that the royalties can be collected digitally," he said.