Kenyan musician Christopher Thande Githara, popularly known as Krispah, of the hit single ‘Ndovu ni Kuu’ has now denied paying upcoming artist Dexta Bryanka to drop his YouTube copyright claim on the song.
This comes after Dexta recently claimed that Krispah paid him Ksh.200,000 to return the video which was taken down from YouTube recently over copyright allegations.
However, according to Krispah, Dexta agreed to remove the claim after receiving a demand letter from his legal team.
Krispah said he owns the song in totality as he still even has the original masters, hence he would not pay the upcoming act.
“On Friday 16th July 2021, Dexta filed a false claim with YouTube to the effect that there was a copyright infringement on his work, by Ndovu Kuu in this song. It was baffling to our client given that all the original masters and recording; were created by Ndovu Kuu,” read a statement to newsrooms from his lawyer Liz Lenjo.
“In addition, the song had been on YouTube and had even trended on other platforms like TikTok for more than a month, with no complaint from Dexta or anyone else.”
“As a professional artist, Ndovu Kuu sought legal counsel with us, and we immediately wrote a demand letter asking Dexta to withdraw the false and misleading claim and restore our client’s content. It is an offence under the Copyright Act Section 33B (8) and has criminal sanctions of a fine not exceeding Kshs. 500,0110 or imprisonment of a term not exceeding 3 years or both.”
Krispah has now urged Dexta to cease from making false claims statements about him on public platforms, adding that he has also decided to drop his law suit against him.
“On Tuesday 20th, Dexta sent a text message to our clients via his management team, that he shall withdraw his claims immediately and restore my client’s song on YouTube,” read the statement.
“No monetary or other arrangements were made with him as he has no entitlements to any part of the song. We hope he shall cease and desist from making fake statements and claims in the public domain.”
It further added: “Our client has extended an olive branch to Dexta, and will not sue him both for criminal and civil wrongs for as long as he refrains from making false statements and he sets the record straight.”
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