Singer and rapper Julius Owino, popularly known as Juliani, has threatened to take legal action against the Jubilee Party and the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Secretariat for using his song ‘Utawala’ on a BBI promotional video without his permission.
In a letter shared on his Twitter account, the singer through his lawyer, James T. Makori, said that the party posted the BBI promotional video on its Twitter account on October 31 using part of his song as the soundtrack. Further, the video was shared on the official Jubilee Party Twitter account with the caption, “Did you know that the #BBIReport proposes the establishment of Office of Ombudsman of the Judiciary which shall play an important oversight role & receive complaints from members of the public against judicial officers? @AlbertMEM @TheRealBBI”
As adviced. @JubileePartyK #Heshimaidumu https://t.co/gHTmR45eaj pic.twitter.com/vnBNWTpZuG
— #Masterpiece ?? (@JulianiKenya) November 2, 2020
The Kenyan musician, Juliani, has claimed that due to the use of his song in the video, it has created an impression that he endorses the Jubilee Party views which might affect his future earnings. He has therefore demanded that the Jubilee Party admit liability for infringement of intellectual property rights in writing within the next 72 hours, failure to which he will institute mandatory legal proceedings against the Jubilee Party.
According to Section 35 of the Copyright Act, Copyright Infringement can be by a person who, without the permission of the owner of the copyright, distributes, imports, broadcasts or makes available to the public, protected works, records or copies from which electronic rights management information has been removed or altered without the authority of the right holder.
The Jubilee Party is yet to respond. They have also deleted the tweet.
