Eric Nyadida is finally the hope of many young creative Kenyans who have lost hope of ever reaping benefits from their creative work. This is after the High Court ruled in his favour, in a ten- year long legal battle with Equity Bank.
The lender has been ordered to pay Eric Obiero Nyadida KES 5 million for allegedly using his music to promote its Wings to Fly scholarship programme without pay.
In 2013 Equity Bank asked Eric, then aged 16, to compose an original music piece to publicise their Wings to fly program. In exchange for the song, the bank would pay him KES 10M.
Equity Bank however refused to pay Nyadida the agreed amount, despite receiving the song and using it to publicise its famous ‘Wings To Fly’ program that supports needy and bright students with bursaries to proceed to secondary education.
At the same time, Nyadida together with his brother were arrested and charged with forgery, for allegedly attempting to defraud the Bank of KES 10 million. This is after Eric’s constant demands that the bank honours its word to pay him the amount. The bank had initially asked Nyadida to reduce the cash from Ksh 10 million to 2.5 million.
The Milimani Commercial High court judge Lady Justice Wilfrida Okwany ruled in favour of Nyadida and further directed the lender, together with the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji and the police, to pay him KES 250,000 for malicious prosecution.
“I must say that the greatest pleasure I have had is to achieve something that many creatives have fought for over the years, and while doing so, I have had the opportunity to stand on the shoulders of giants. I undertook to fight the good fight, to get involved in some good trouble, if I may say so,” he said in a statement.
Nyadida also says in a statement that the country now has an excellent opportunity to further jurisprudence on the rights of the child and intellectual property.
Nyadida termed the ruling ‘a miracle’ and thanked his family and team of lawyers at Khaminwa and Khaminwa Advocates for the support as he battled the lender in court.
“I undertook to fight the good fight, to get involved in some good trouble if I may say so. If you go against the norm, others may somewhat distance themselves from you, otherwise known as distancing yourself from failure beforehand.
