Why Kenya Needs A State-Owned Collective Management Organization For Its Entertainment Industry

By Jer­ameel Kevins Owuor Odhi­ambo 

Worth Not­ing:

• With gov­ern­ment back­ing, this CMO would cham­pi­on local con­tent in unprece­dent­ed ways. By pri­or­i­tiz­ing Kenyan cre­atives, we’d not only pre­serve and pro­mote our rich cul­tur­al her­itage but also ensure our artists receive the sup­port and fund­ing need­ed to pro­duce world-class con­tent that res­onates glob­al­ly. This would posi­tion Kenya as a cul­tur­al pow­er­house in Africa and beyond!
• Per­haps most impor­tant­ly, a state-owned CMO would wage an effec­tive war against pira­cy – the silent thief that has stolen bil­lions from our cre­ative econ­o­my. By part­ner­ing with law enforce­ment and lever­ag­ing gov­ern­men­tal author­i­ty, we could final­ly imple­ment strate­gies that pro­tect intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty and ensure cre­ators receive the fruits of their labor. The poten­tial eco­nom­ic impact is stag­ger­ing!

Kenya stands at the precipice of an enter­tain­ment rev­o­lu­tion, with indus­try pro­jec­tions sug­gest­ing an incred­i­ble surge to Ksh 900 bil­lion (approx­i­mate­ly $4.8 bil­lion) by 2025! This mon­u­men­tal growth isn’t hap­pen­ing by acci­dent – it’s the per­fect storm of our youth­ful pop­u­la­tion embrac­ing tech­nol­o­gy, sky­rock­et­ing smart­phone adop­tion (with over 33 mil­lion devices as of late 2023), and the unstop­pable shift toward dig­i­tal plat­forms that’s cre­at­ing unprece­dent­ed oppor­tu­ni­ties in our cre­ative econ­o­my.

Despite these thrilling pro­jec­tions, we face sig­nif­i­cant hur­dles that pre­vent our tal­ent­ed artists from reap­ing their well-deserved rewards. Pira­cy con­tin­ues to dev­as­tate poten­tial earn­ings, local con­tent cre­ators strug­gle to find ade­quate sup­port sys­tems, and rev­enue dis­tri­b­u­tion remains frus­trat­ing­ly frag­ment­ed. The solu­tion? A state-owned col­lec­tive man­age­ment orga­ni­za­tion (CMO) that could rev­o­lu­tion­ize how our enter­tain­ment indus­try oper­ates, final­ly giv­ing our cre­ators the plat­form they deserve!

Let’s envi­sion what this state-owned CMO could accom­plish. First, it would estab­lish a cen­tral­ized rights man­age­ment sys­tem – a game-chang­er for track­ing usage and ensur­ing fair com­pen­sa­tion. This approach has worked won­ders in coun­tries like France and Ger­many, where sim­i­lar orga­ni­za­tions have stream­lined roy­al­ty dis­tri­b­u­tion and empow­ered cre­ative com­mu­ni­ties. Imag­ine the pos­si­bil­i­ties when our tal­ent­ed Kenyan artists can focus on their craft instead of chas­ing pay­ments!

With gov­ern­ment back­ing, this CMO would cham­pi­on local con­tent in unprece­dent­ed ways. By pri­or­i­tiz­ing Kenyan cre­atives, we’d not only pre­serve and pro­mote our rich cul­tur­al her­itage but also ensure our artists receive the sup­port and fund­ing need­ed to pro­duce world-class con­tent that res­onates glob­al­ly. This would posi­tion Kenya as a cul­tur­al pow­er­house in Africa and beyond!

Per­haps most impor­tant­ly, a state-owned CMO would wage an effec­tive war against pira­cy – the silent thief that has stolen bil­lions from our cre­ative econ­o­my. By part­ner­ing with law enforce­ment and lever­ag­ing gov­ern­men­tal author­i­ty, we could final­ly imple­ment strate­gies that pro­tect intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty and ensure cre­ators receive the fruits of their labor. The poten­tial eco­nom­ic impact is stag­ger­ing!

The rev­enue gen­er­a­tion pos­si­bil­i­ties are extra­or­di­nary. With reports show­ing steady growth from Ksh 22.4 bil­lion in 2017 to Ksh 32.2 bil­lion in 2023, imag­ine how a fair, trans­par­ent roy­al­ty col­lec­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem could accel­er­ate this tra­jec­to­ry! We could wit­ness unprece­dent­ed pros­per­i­ty for our cre­ative com­mu­ni­ty, trans­form­ing art from a pas­sion project into a viable, sus­tain­able career path for thou­sands of tal­ent­ed Kenyans.

Look­ing beyond our bor­ders, a Kenyan CMO would facil­i­tate inter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships that could cat­a­pult our artists onto the glob­al stage. By col­lab­o­rat­ing with sim­i­lar orga­ni­za­tions world­wide, we could nego­ti­ate agree­ments that open doors to for­eign mar­kets, giv­ing Kenyan cre­atives the inter­na­tion­al expo­sure they’ve always deserved. The suc­cess of South Africa’s SAMRO shows just how trans­for­ma­tive this approach can be!

The tim­ing could­n’t be more per­fect for this ini­tia­tive. Dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion is reshap­ing con­sumer behav­iors at break­neck speed – OTT ser­vices are pro­ject­ed to more than dou­ble their rev­enues by 2025, mobile gam­ing is expe­ri­enc­ing explo­sive growth, and stream­ing plat­forms are becom­ing house­hold neces­si­ties. A state-owned CMO would posi­tion Kenya to cap­i­tal­ize on these trends rather than play­ing catch-up in years to come.

For stake­hold­ers across the spec­trum – from gov­ern­ment offi­cials to indus­try lead­ers to the artists them­selves – col­lab­o­ra­tion on this frame­work rep­re­sents a his­toric oppor­tu­ni­ty. The estab­lish­ment of a CMO isn’t just about address­ing cur­rent chal­lenges; it’s about build­ing sus­tain­able infra­struc­ture that will sup­port gen­er­a­tions of Kenyan cre­atives, ensur­ing our cul­tur­al voice remains strong and vibrant on the glob­al stage.

The evi­dence is over­whelm­ing and the poten­tial rewards extra­or­di­nary. By invest­ing in a state-owned col­lec­tive man­age­ment orga­ni­za­tion, Kenya can pro­tect its cre­ative assets, max­i­mize rev­enue streams for artists, com­bat pira­cy effec­tive­ly, and posi­tion itself as a leader in Africa’s flour­ish­ing enter­tain­ment land­scape. The pro­jec­tions point to tremen­dous growth – now is the time to ensure that this growth ben­e­fits those who make the mag­ic hap­pen: our remark­able Kenyan cre­ators!

The writer is a Legal Scriven­er