Principal Secretary for the State Department for Culture and Heritage Ummi Bashir.
The money that the government plans to distribute to artists through e-Citizen as royalties from the collection of the blank tape levy, a fee collected from importers of blank media and recording devices, now stands at Sh150 million.
In March 2025, Ms Ummi Bashir, the Principal Secretary for Culture, Arts and Heritage, told the National Assembly Committee on Sports and Culture that the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) had collected Sh104 million from the blank tape levy since 2023. The collection has been ongoing.
However, three years down the line, the government has been unable to distribute the money due to an ongoing case filed by the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK), which is challenging the distribution of the millions.
The levy was enforced in September 2023 when the government began collecting the money following an amendment introduced to the Copyright Act.
According to the latest figures from KECOBO, the amount now stands at Sh150 million.
“The case which stopped the distribution of the blank tape levy, which is about Sh150 million, and which was filed by MCSK, is still ongoing,” Alex Omanga, KECOBO’s lawyer, said.
According to the Copyright Act, those set to benefit from the distribution of the levy are musicians, actors, producers, scriptwriters, book publishers, and visual artists.
The blank tape levy, otherwise known as the Private Copying Remuneration (PCR), is a fee collected from importers of blank media and recording devices into the country.
Every time an importer brings in gadgets such as memory cards, laptops, smartphones, flash disks, photocopiers, printers, decoders, smart TVs, game consoles, smart watches, or any device capable of storing copyrighted works, a portion of the price goes toward compensating artists, authors, and producers.
For instance, the importation of video game consoles, memory cards, and portable hard drives attracts a levy of Sh200 per unit.
For computers, smartphones, and smart watches, the government charges 1.5 percent of each unit’s purchase price. This means that a smartphone imported at Sh30, 000 attracts a levy of Sh450.
The logic behind the blank tape levy is that since these devices can store and copy copyrighted content—such as songs, movies, or software—the copyright holders deserve compensation for potential revenue lost when a copy is made for personal use. In simple terms, every time a user backs up a song or copies a movie for personal use, the law assumes a small fee has already gone toward paying the artist, actor, or author.
Since the introduction of the levy, collection has been done by three bodies: KECOBO, the Kenya Trade Network Agency (KenTrade), and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
KenTrade invoices importers and manufacturers after confirming the number of devices being released into the Kenyan market. KRA is KenTrade’s collection agent, which then transfers the money to KECOBO for distribution to respective copyright holders—the creatives (actors, musicians, scriptwriters, among others).
More than Sh100 million collected from the blank tape levy is yet to be released to musicians.
KECOBO has been keen to distribute the millions collected so far, while retaining 20 percent. However, that effort has been halted following a suit filed by MCSK at the High Court.
MCSK, the country’s oldest and largest union representing over 16,000 musicians, obtained an order barring the distribution of the money.
The collective management organisation argues that KECOBO’s distribution procedure lacks transparency and fairness.
According to MCSK, the Copyright Act, which details what each category of copyright holder is entitled to, has locked its members out of the millions.
MCSK’s biggest issue is Section 30B of the amended Copyright Act.
“Section 30B perpetuates discrimination to the extent that it excludes compensation to copyright owners of musical works. Over the years, we’ve been assured that this anomaly would be corrected, yet Section 30B still directs that PCR funds (blank tape levy) be shared only between performers and producers of sound recordings, completely excluding the authors, composers, and publishers who create the works in the first place. The remuneration under Section 30B does not provide for compensation to copyright owners, authors, composers, arrangers, and publishers of musical, artistic, and literary works, nor to broadcasters or other related rights owners,” MCSK argued in its court filings.
The society also wants to be allocated the biggest share of the millions, stating that it deserves 60 percent of the total revenue collected since it represents the largest number of copyright holders.
As such, MCSK wants the court to compel KECOBO and the Attorney General to steer Parliament toward amending the Copyright Act to explicitly recognise authors, composers, arrangers, and publishers as rightful beneficiaries of the levy, and to allocate 60 percent of total revenues collected to the society.
However, KECOBO opposes this proposition, stating that its distribution framework mirrors successful practices in countries such as Malawi, Nigeria, and Ghana.
Under the proposed framework, KECOBO, as regulator of CMOs on behalf of the government, will retain 20 percent of the blank tape revenue, allocate 8 percent as agent commission for contracted agent Webtribe T/A Jambo Pay, and 2 percent to KenTrade for managing the collection system, while distributing the remaining 70 percent to the creative sector.
“The 70 percent share of blank tape royalties allocated to the creative sector shall be distributed to rights holders in music and sound recording, whose share percentage will be 37 percent. Audiovisual rights holders, which include film producers, actors, scriptwriters, gamers, and animators, will get 15 percent, while literary works rights holders (book authors and publishers, and visual artists) will receive 18 percent,” noted KECOBO Executive Director George Nyakweba in his affidavit.
KECOBO also wants the suit dismissed, stating that there is no express or implied exclusion of MCSK members from the levy share, arguing that Sections 30 and 2 of the Copyright Act expressly mention related rights and “owner of the copyright,” implying that all intellectual property rights holders are covered.
The High Court is expected to issue further directions when the case comes up for mention next month.
Until 2019, the Kenyan Copyright Act did not provide for the blank levy (PCR) until its introduction through the 2019 amendments.
The levy was not implemented until September 2023, when KECOBO began enforcement following further amendments to the Copyright Act in 2022 that gave it authority to oversee collection and disbursement.
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