21 year old sues Equity Bank over wings to fly music

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A man has filed a lawsuit against Equity Bank (Kenya) Limited and Equity Group Foundation over “wings to fly” music.

Eric Obiero Nyadida, 21 is seeking orders to stop the Bank and its foundation from using his piece of music titled “wings to fly” in their advertising campaigns for their wings to fly project either on internet based platforms or the television or radio.

Through Lawyer John Khaminwa, Nyadida wants the court to issue conservatory orders stopping the Bank from using his piece of music from any platform whether radio or media platform whatsoever of the Equity Group foundation projects called wings to fly pending hearing and determination of the matter.

The petitioner allegedly composed the song while still in school as a teenager and Equity bank was to buy the copyright at Sh 10 million.

Nyadida argues that Equity Bank has continued to use the music which is his intellectual property without any valid license, consent or approval.

He says that his right to protect and benefit from his intellectual property is protected under the provisions of Article 40 (5) of the constitution and the copyright Act 2011 of the laws of Kenya which right has an continues to be infringed by the Bank who are using and benefitting from project “wings to fly”.

He accused Equity Bank of colluding with Director of Public Prosecution and National Police Service to have him charged when he was 16 years which charges he and his co-accused were acquitted of as a ploy to intimidate them from pursuing his right to compensation with regard to the two institutions using his music.

“My fundamental rights continues to be breached and unless Equity Bank is restrained, I stand to suffer a great loss and damage,” says Obiero.

Nyadida says he was a budding musician with his manager called John Kennedy who was able to get him an opportunity to create the original piece of music that could be used by the Bank in wings to fly project.

“The copyright of the song was registered on 14th May 2013 as per the court documents,” he says.

He avers that he met with Edward Muchai who introduced himself as Equity Bank Communication manager and gave him a compact disc and after listening to it on his computer he told him to write a proposal that would be presented to the Bank’s Chief Executive Officer for consideration.

He wrote the proposal and returned it to Muchai after one week and went through it after which he sent him to the office of the CEO John Mwangi whom they met and after reading the proposal, he liked it and wanted to implement the same so he directed him to go and meet Kibiru an officer with the Bank.

Kibiru presented to him a document titled “BUYING OF COPYRIGHTS” which stated that they were buying the rights of his song for the 10 million which he signed but was not paid.

They had allegedly tried to negotiate for a lower amount than the agreed 10 million.