Kenyan bank ordered to pay music creator

The High Court in Nairobi also ordered Equity Bank, together with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the police, to pay an additional Ksh250 000 to Edwin Nyadida for illegal arrest and prosecution. 

This followed a lawsuit filed by Nyadida in November 2021 in which he sought compensation from Equity Bank for the illegal use of his song ‘Wings to Fly’.

Nyadida told the court that in 2013, when he was a high school pupil, Equity Bank approached him with a proposal to compose a song for its Wings to Fly scholarship programme.

He said that after composing the song, he had registered the work with the Music Copyright Society of Kenya before submitting it to the bank for use on condition that he would be compensated Ksh10m.

He said that a year later the bank had not remunerated him despite making inquiries and writing several letters to seek compensation.

“At some point, they asked me to reduce the cash from Ksh10m to Ksh2.5m with a promise to cover the arrears by offering me a scholarship, but I refused,” Nyadida told The Star last year.

He said he was later summoned to the bank where upon arrival Equity Bank’s security team took him to the Bank Fraud Investigation Unit where he was accused of attempted fraud and charged in court. 

“I was 16 years old when the bank told my brother and I through a letter that we had committed a criminal offence and we were to take statements the next day at the Equity Centre,” Nyadida said.

However, Nyadida was cleared of the charges in 2017 and sued the police for unlawful arrest and for being stripped of the right to legal representation.

“The case took three years in court and I was acquitted in October 2017, since the prosecution did not provided enough evidence for the offence,” Nyadida said.

During Tuesday’s ruling, Justice Wilfrida Okwany said the court had heard the petitioner’s song and the music used for the Wings to Fly jingle. 

“I noted that there was a striking similarity between the said song and the one used by the bank in advertising its programme, also dubbed Wings to Fly,” Okwany said. “Nyadida has proved that the lender used and has been using the music that he created without his consent and without paying him, thus breaching his intellectual property rights.”

Okwany added that it was ironic that a bank that promoted the education of needy students chose to treat Nyadida, a student, in such a cruel manner.