The High Court in Nairobi has declined to compel the Kenya Copyright Board and the Cabinet Secretary for Gender, Culture and Arts to order mobile service providers to pay musicians directly for their call-back tunes.
In a case filed by the Music Associations Alliance of Kenya (MAAK) Chairman Justus Ngemu and former teacher cum musician, Saul Esikuri, Justice John Chigiti said yesterday Safaricom and Airtel have already been paying the artistes despite there being no regulations or database.
He, however, directed that the board should have a database of all artistes and their work.
Call-back tunes, known as Skiza tunes on Safaricom and Hello tunes on Airtel, typically cost Sh1.50 daily for local and international tunes.
