The Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) is not going to miss out on the financial bonanza afforded by the already frenetic election campaign that is raging throughout the country. They have just tripled the fee that roadshows must pay for blaring out all that music that now assaults the electorate from every quarter, from Sh10,000 per day to Sh30,000.

Candidates using the ubiquitous campaign trucks for the rest of the campaign will now have to stump a whopping Sh1.53 million.

Who will pay the piper?

The new fees’ scale will in dramatically increase the MCSK’s income from music royalties but will it benefit the musicians concerned? The Kenya Forum is not alone in having its doubts.

The MCSK has been criticised by musicians for not passing on the copyright fees they gather in and only last year the Intellectual Property Owners Association and Music Publishers Association of Kenya went to court to demand a “clean up” of the MCSK.

What are the chances of the MSCK passing on their new found wealth to the often struggling artists for whom the copyright fee is charged in the first place?