Kenyan President Uhuru gives artists Sh 2 billion as a cushion due to COVID-19 job losses.
In an official address to the nation on April 6, President Kenyatta directed the Ministry of Sports, Culture, and Heritage to avail Ksh100 million from the National Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund to be used in cushioning artists, actors, and musicians in the period the country will be battling the coronavirus outbreak., On February 27, 2020, the Music Copyright Society of Kenya announced the distribution of Ksh37.5 million in royalties the organization collected during the period of July 1 to December 31, 2019., MCSK Chairman Japheth Kasanga announced that 60 percent of the royalties would be distributed to the “best and most representative list of works that have been performed” while 40 percent would be distributed generally to all registered members., The president also mentioned Sh2 billion that is to be paid to artists will be raised from their own royalties and not from the taxpayers’ money as the post claims., “I am pleased to announce that the Ministry of ICT, Innovation, and Youth Affairs in collaboration with Kenya Copyright Board, Collective Management Organizations have established a framework to ensure full transparency of artists’ earnings. My administration has projected that a total of 200m every month will be paid to musicians through the system and other platforms. This translates to over Ksh.2 billion going into the pockets of Kenyan artists,” said President Kenyatta on April 6., The figure of Ksh2 billion was first announced during the president’s address to the nation on January 14, where he revealed new measures to streamline the collection and payment of royalties, stating that the new system would lead to an expected increase from Ksh200 million to Ksh2 billion per year., Kenya has reported 179 cases and 6 deaths from COVID-19 as of April 8, 2020., PesaCheck has looked into the claim that President Kenyatta has allocated Sh2 billion to Kenyan artists to help them cope with the economic effects of COVID-19 and finds it to be FALSE., This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms., By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds., Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content., This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker James Okong’o and edited by PesaCheck News Editor Enock Nyariki., The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Eric Mugendi., PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org., PesaCheck is a joint initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with additional funding support from the International Budget Partnership (Kenya) and Twaweza, in partnership with a coalition of local media organisations, and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ)., Written by, Written by
FALSE: Kenyan artists will not receive Ksh2 billion from the government for COVID-19 relief