Speaking during the Kenya Music Festival Winner’s State Concert in Nakuru on Wednesday 23rd August 2023, the President announced that they are working on a Creative Bill to not only have professional studios in Nairobi but in all 47 counties.
“We are already working on a creative bill that is going to make sure that the creative commission will not only have professional studios in Nairobi but in every county in Kenya,” he said.
He gave CS Ababu Namwamba and his team an ultimatum of two months for them to make sure the Creative Bill finds its way into Parliament. He explained that this Bill will help to build the right space so that monetization of the great talents.
In his speech, the President announced a policy decision to change the name of the Permanent Presidential Commission to the Creative Commission of Kenya
The president also noted that he had been having conversations with various social media platform bosses. Through these talks, the president announced that 2 social platforms have agreed to monetize content in Kenya that being YouTube and Twitter.
“We have 80%monetization on Youtube making us one of the 4 countries in Africa that can monetize content.”
He also stated that Facebook has agreed to test with 25 of the country’s creators to unlock the potential of monetizing content.
He acknowledged that the country was aligned with what needed to be done.
On Thursday 23rd August 2023, the President will be meeting with the TiktoK CEO to agree on a mechanism to moderate content on their space so as to reduce content that is negative and leverage the positive.
He also gave figures that the country makes around 300 Million to 500 Million from social media platforms.
In his final remarks, the country boss insisted that more young people grab online opportunities as there are so many.
In order to record a song in a studio one has to have at least 20, OOO to 40,000 in Nairobi today, which becomes hard for most Kenyans, especially, in the economy we are currently in but through the move by the Government it will be able to give opportunities to every artist to be able to professionalize the art they are gifted with as it will be more cheaper for artists.
The annual Music Festivals, cultural events, and the move for KICD to have its own YouTube channels show that as a country we are on the right path to elevate performing Arts to higher levels. Also, President Ruto’s move to promote performing arts teachers will give the teachers more motivation to teach and encourage more students to go on the Arts path in order to strike a balance between academics and extracurricular activities thus nurturing their talents from a young age, and enable them to be all-rounded. Offering scholarships to students who did exceptionally well in this year’s music festival, will encourage more students to join the music festivals meaning as a country we are able to produce more artists to elevate this industry.