KECOBO Reacts Over Viral Meme of Kenyan Comedian Mandich in a Rally
The Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) has issued a warning to people and corporations about the dangers of utilizing memes for profit without the owners' permission.
Christine Juma 
This comes barely months after aviral video of akenyan comedian identified as Arap Mandich and his couterpart Tula where they were seen with dusty faces impersonating rally drivers went viral on social media.
Since then netizens have been using their meme photos for diffrent purposes.
In a statement issued on Friday, KECOBO CEO Edward Sigei said that other Kenyan businesses had now utilized the memes on various social media sites, posing serious copyright issues.
“A meme is an image, video or text used in social media for humorous or political banter and illustrative of a line of thought on a topic under discussion,” said Mr. Sigei.
“Memes are in most cases static images created from a photograph, illustration, text, or video that is protected by copyright.”
Mr. Sigei claims that the Copyright Act only grants the copyright holder the temporary right to reproduce, publish, and broadcast their work.
Arap Marindich a Kenyan ???????? comedian who has gone viral international for his amazing video clip in Kenya during the Naivasha Safari rally. pic.twitter.com/Rrz4BWgPe9
— African Hub (@AfricanHub_) August 4, 2022
“In that regard, a copyright owner can create a meme from his photograph or video in exercise of their rights under copyright. Such memes can be exploited for the benefit of the author through advertising and as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs),” stated Mr. Sigei.
“Therefore, a meme generated without the authority of the Copyright owner is an infringement on their copyright particularly the exclusive rights to reproduce, copy, adapt and publish since the original photograph or video undergoes some alteration and incorporation of a text.”
The Executive Director of KECOBO also stated that even if the use of memes on social media is accepted, their dissemination for profit might result in serious civil liability.
