Former vocalist of Adawnage band Roseline Mwihaki has won a lawsuit she pressed against the band, demanding to be paid royalties dating over six years.
Roseline Mwihaki, who goes by Kaki Mwihaki sued the band and won the copyright lawsuit seeking to be paid royalties for all the music composed together, dating to over six years. Mwihaki, who is currently residing in Arizona in the United States as a minister accused the band of not remitting her portion of the proceeds gotten from their music.
Magistrate Caroline Cheptoo who was overseeing Mwihaki’s case at the Milimani Law courts granted her requests.
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“The plaintiff has demonstrated her contribution to the band since its inception. The plaintiff has proved her case on a balance of probability and this court enters judgment in her favour,” Magistrate Cheptoo said, as reported by Nation.
According to her lawyer David Katee, the court order will compel the Adawnage band members to compensate Mwihaki. The legal representative said the exact figure for compensation is not definite and could run into millions.
“Adawnage needs to comply with those orders before we can determine how much they should pay. However, we are looking at millions of shillings because the royalties have accumulated over the years, and it’s not about one song but more than 10.” Said David, Mwihaki’s lawyer.
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Mwihaki met her fellow former band members on May 28, 2008, after she won a talent show. Serving as the band’s vocalist, she and her bandmates; Robert Njuguna, Anthony Avikembe, David Ogara, and many others would take Adawnage to the top of the gospel industry through their hit songs, ‘I live for you’, Naomba, and Uwezo, just to mention but a few.
The Adawnage ship started to sink after she (Mwihaki) started experiencing problems in her marriage, which led her to take a step back from being the lead singer in the band. Her band would later kick her out, denying her access to the music catalog and the royalties accrued to them.
She relocated to the US, after which she asked to be given rights to authorship and royalties of 12 out of 20 songs she had composed. Her request was denied by the band claiming that the songs were a collective intellectual property and would remain as such.
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“I am not credited as a songwriter of any of my original compositions on any of the platforms (online and on YouTube) and efforts to have the band credit my work has been futile,”
Mwihaki has since then been slowly but surely reinventing herself with a few songs of her own including ‘Nani kama Yahweh’ released in 2018.
