The Stakeholders’ Workshop on Copyright Law Review in Kenya was held on Thursday January 28 in Nairobi. The main purpose of the workshop was to provide stakeholders with an opportunity to contribute to the law reform process. The workshop was organised by the Kenya Copyright Board. Both Dr. Ben Sihanya and Marisella Ouma of the Kenya ACA2K Research Team participated in the process.

The Kenya Copyright Board, a statutory body that is mandated to deal with the enforcement and administration of copyright and related rights, embarked on the exercise of copyright reform in 2007. The process has been participatory with consultations with various stakeholders and draft amendments prepared. The draft amendments have taken into account proposals made by the ACA2K Team in Kenya, especially in relation to exceptions and limitations which have been viewed by users as limiting access to teaching and learning materials.

The one-day workshop drew  representatives from the book publishing industry, collective management organisations and the screenwriters association, as well as students and users from university libraries, the national library and the national archives. Material from the ACA2K research was distributed alongside the Board's proposed amendments. The materials distributed were the Kenya Country Report, ACA2K Briefing Papers 1 and 2 and the Kenya Executive Policy Brief.

The proposed amended or new exceptions and limitations, especially in relation to the visually-impaired, educational institutions and libraries and archives, drew mixed reactions from the participants. The rights-holders, especially the book publishers, were of the opinion that the exceptions and limitations should be drafted in line with the Berne Convention 'three-step test' and should not in any way prejudice their interests. The libraries questioned the provision of exceptions that were limited to public libraries.  The universities wanted a clear provision on the use of works for teaching purposes.

The participants requested the Board to come up with another draft that incorporates contributions from the meeting and circulate the draft to stakeholders for further comments before submitting the document to the Office of the Attorney-General. The Executive Director requested that the participants study the ACA2K documents given out at the meeting.

The Board is currently working on a second draft of the proposed amendments, which will be circulated to stakeholders in due course.

Marisella Ouma February 1, 2010