Nairobi,KENYA: The Kenya copyright board has called on the government to fast track processing of the draft copyright bill to increase penalties for people who infringe copyright laws.
In a joint press statement in Nairobi, the copy right board CEO Edward Sigei and the Kenya publishers association chair David Waweru urged the government to hasten the bill into law terming tough penalties as a measure required to reduce mass losses the publishers undergo in the industry.
“We recommend that the state law office and the cabinet to hasten the processing of the draft copyright bill with a view of enacting it into law as soon as possible to increase the legal penalties for copyright infringement.”
The bill is currently at the state law office.
As a measure to curb piracy in the education sector Mr Waweru urged the Ministry of education to ensure that schools purchase books from registered suppliers and acquire ETR receipts as per the requirements of the law so as to ascertain the authenticity of the suppliers.
He also urged the Kenya Revenue Authority to crack down on the pirates who make huge tax free profits.
“Piracy is a criminal enterprise that cannibalizes on not just the efforts and investments of authors and firms but the national treasury as well since the con men operate under radar and do not pay taxes.” He said.
On Wednesday the board carried out a crackdown at Ngong and Nyamakima surburbs in Nairobi where 10,000 books with a net worth of sh 5 million were recovered.
