The legal framework
The Copyright Act 2001 protects literary, musical and artistic works for the author's life plus fifty years. A 2019 amendment introduced a takedown notice procedure for internet service providers and clarified their liability. The Kenya Copyright Board administers the system and operates a voluntary registration service that is widely used as evidence.
Kenya's Copyright Act protects works for the author's life plus fifty years and was significantly amended in 2019 to introduce a notice-and-takedown procedure for internet service providers and to tighten the regulation of collecting societies, an area that had generated long-running disputes among musicians. The Kenya Copyright Board administers registration, which is voluntary.
Key points
| Statute | Copyright Act 2001, amended in 2019 and 2022 |
|---|---|
| Term | Life plus 50 years |
| Takedown | Statutory ISP notice procedure since the 2019 amendment |
| Registration | Voluntary, through the Kenya Copyright Board; useful as evidence |
| Collective management | Licensed societies, with the Board supervising tariffs |
| Fair dealing | Research, private use, criticism, review, reporting |
| Voluntary registration | Through the Copyright Board, widely used as evidence |
| ISP liability | Defined by the 2019 amendment, with a prescribed notice form |
| Tariff supervision | The Board approves collective management tariffs |
In practice
- Assume everything you find online is protected: absence of a copyright notice means nothing.
- Look for an explicit licence — Creative Commons, a stock licence, a written permission — and keep a copy of it.
- Credit alone is not a defence: attribution does not replace permission.
- For anything commercial, get permission in writing and keep it for as long as you use the work.
- Use the prescribed takedown notice form: an incorrectly formatted notice will be ignored.
Where to go
- Kenya Copyright Board.
- MCSK, KAMP and PRISK for music.
- High Court for infringement claims.
Worth knowing
The takedown procedure has formal requirements: a notice that does not follow the prescribed form will simply be ignored by the service provider. The notice procedure has formal requirements. Service providers are entitled to disregard a notice that does not comply.
Frequently asked questions
How does takedown work in Kenya?
The 2019 amendments created a statutory notice-and-takedown procedure: a rights holder serves a notice on the internet service provider, which must act within a set period or lose its safe harbour. There is a counter-notice route for the person who posted the material.
Who owns a photograph of the two of us?
Copyright belongs to whoever pressed the shutter, not to the people in the picture — so a photograph taken by a friend or a wedding photographer is theirs unless the contract says otherwise. Being in the image gives you a separate claim based on privacy or personality rather than copyright. If you want to use wedding photographs freely, negotiate a licence in writing before the day, not afterwards.
Official sources and links
- eCitizen — official government services portal