Deal sheet
- Status
- Unsettled and under active litigation. A 26 May 2023 interlocutory ruling in Civil Case E322 of 2022 (High Court at Nairobi, Milimani Commercial Courts, Commercial and Tax Division) confirms KLM paid Sol Generation Records more than Kshs. 4,000,000 for use of two of five disputed songs, and orders the label and the four Sauti Sol members to deliver full royalty and licensing records within 30 days. The ruling decides only the interlocutory application; it does not resolve the underlying ownership questions, and the main suit remains pending. No court document postdating 26 May 2023 was obtained for this record.
- Parties
- Sol Generation Records, Universal Music (Pty) Ltd (ZA), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Kenya)
- Amount
- KES 4,000,000
- Rights covered
- WHAT THE RULING ESTABLISHES, SONG BY SONG (from the defendants' own sworn affidavits, as recorded by the court):
LENGA: 1st-5th defendants (Sol Generation Records and the four Sauti Sol members, trading as "Sol Entertainment") told the court Asige "exclusively owns and enjoys the master rights" and has "full control over its distribution for commercial benefit." Undisputed in the same case: the label signed a 12 September 2019 contract granting KLM exclusive worldwide rights to use and promote this song in advertising, in perpetuity for internal/advertising use even after the contract term lapses.
UKIWA MBALI: 1st defendant (Sol Generation Records) claims it owns the full master rights; Asige credited only as a contributing artist. Also covered by the September 2019 KLM contract.
INTRO (on the album "Midnight Train"): 1st-5th defendants admit they own no rights to this recording; sworn as "wholly owned by Universal Music (Pty) Limited." The court treated this admission as supporting Asige's claim: having no rights to license, the defendants' involvement in distributing/syncing the song without her consent was itself evidence of infringement.
EXTRAVAGANZA: defendants say Asige was a featured artist entitled only to a percentage of publishing/performer's rights, not a co-owner. Plaintiff's pleadings (not independently verified by this desk beyond the ruling's own recitation of them) state the song was synced to the Netflix series "Country Queen."
FAVORITE SONG (Bensoul): defendants dispute Asige's claimed arrangement contribution, asserting her role was background vocals only, entitled to performer's rights alone.
THE MONEY: KLM's own replying affidavit (sworn by its GM for Nigeria, Ghana, East and Southern Africa) states it paid "more than Kshs. 4,000,000" to Sol Generation Records for Lenga and Ukiwa Mbali under the September 2019 agreement. This is a floor stated by the paying party, not an exact or audited total, and covers only two of the five disputed songs.
THE ORDER: temporary injunction against the 1st-5th defendants restraining further infringement of the five works; order to deliver a full statement of royalties/revenues and all licensing, assignment and royalty information (including synchronization) for the five songs from 2019 to date, within 30 days of the 26 May 2023 ruling. KLM (6th defendant) was not enjoined; the court accepted its unrebutted claim that it had already removed the two songs from its Facebook page.
SCOPE LIMIT: this is an interlocutory ruling on a Notice of Motion dated 7 December 2022, not a final determination of ownership. The main suit, Civil Case E322 of 2022, remains open. No document postdating this ruling was obtained for this record.
- Territory
- Kenya (underlying dispute); worldwide (scope of the KLM promotional rights grant, per the contract terms recorded in the ruling)
- Announced
- 2019-09-12
- Primary document
- Regulatory filing
- Sources
- High Court of Kenya ruling, Asige v Sol Generation Records Limited & 5 others, Civil Case E322 of 2022, [2023] KEHC 24541 (KLR) (Commercial and Tax), 26 May 2023 · Kenyan trade report, October 2025, on continuing courtroom testimony (context only, not relied on for facts stated as established by the ruling itself) · Kenyan trade report on the Kshs 5 million claim figure pleaded in the main suit (pleaded amount, not a court finding) · Kenyan trade report quoting Sol Generation's counsel on master-rights claims, read as corroborating context, not as a primary filing
Read this before citing: THE EXACT UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTITY IS NOT ESTABLISHED. The ruling names only "Universal Music (Pty) Limited" as owner of the "Midnight Train" album, with no further corporate detail (no registration number, no jurisdiction beyond what the "(Pty) Limited" suffix implies). Separately reported Kenyan trade coverage of the same dispute, not independently verified against a primary document for this record and not relied on for any fact stated as established, has referred to the relevant Universal entity as "Universal Music Africa," which is a different named company in this directory (ID 4801) from "Universal Music (Pty) Ltd (ZA)" (ID 2991), the South African Universal Music Group subsidiary this record's party link rests on by name match alone. Which entity, if either, actually holds or administers the Midnight Train rights is not established. This is flagged as a gap, not resolved here.
THE KSHS 4,000,000+ FIGURE IS A FLOOR, NOT A TOTAL. It is KLM's own sworn minimum for two songs (Lenga, Ukiwa Mbali) under one 2019 contract. It says nothing about what, if anything, Sol Generation Records earned from Extravaganza's reported Netflix sync, from Intro's placement on a Universal-owned album, or from Favorite Song. No source obtained states a total value for the five-song dispute, and none is asserted here.
THE DEFENDANTS' OWNERSHIP POSITIONS ARE INTERNALLY INCONSISTENT. In the same set of affidavits, the label asserts Asige owns Lenga's masters outright while having licensed worldwide promotional rights to that same song to a third party without, on her account, her knowledge or consent; asserts it owns Ukiwa Mbali's masters while crediting her only as a contributor; and asserts it owns nothing on Intro at all. The court read this pattern as supporting Asige's prima facie case rather than undermining it, but did not resolve, at the interlocutory stage, which if any of these three positions is correct.
NO WRITTEN AGREEMENT HAS BEEN PRODUCED. No split sheet, publishing registration, or written agency/representation agreement between Asige and Sol Generation Records appears in any document obtained for this record. The ruling records the parties' sworn positions on each song; it does not record, and this desk did not independently obtain, any underlying contract establishing those positions.
THIS IS AN INTERLOCUTORY RULING, NOT A FINAL JUDGMENT. It decides a Notice of Motion dated 7 December 2022 seeking a temporary injunction and delivery-up of accounts. It does not decide the main suit. Separately reported coverage describing continuing testimony in 2025 and an expectation that the hearing would continue into 2026 was read for context but is not treated as an established fact of case status here, since no court document postdating 26 May 2023 was fetched for this record. Source type is recorded as "filing" because the ruling itself, at the URL below, was fetched directly (HTTP 200) and read in full; this is the strongest source type this desk uses and should not be read as implying the underlying ownership dispute has been resolved.
A Kenyan High Court ruling, read in full by this desk, confirms that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines paid Sol Generation Records more than Kshs. 4,000,000 to use two songs co-written and performed by Crystal Asige, a founding member who left the label in 2019 without ever signing a recording contract. The ruling, delivered 26 May 2023 in Civil Case E322 of 2022 at the High Court at Nairobi’s Milimani Commercial Courts, orders Sol Generation Records and the four members of Sauti Sol to hand Asige a full statement of royalties and all licensing, assignment and royalty information covering five disputed songs. It is an interlocutory order, not a final verdict, and the underlying suit remains open.
What the court record establishes
The application before the court sought an injunction and an order to produce accounts over five songs: “Lenga,” “Extravaganza,” “Ukiwa Mbali,” “Favorite Song” and “Intro.” The ruling records sworn, conflicting positions on each song, taken from the defendants’ own replying affidavits.
On “Lenga,” the 1st to 5th defendants (Sol Generation Records and the four Sauti Sol members, named individually as trading “T/a Sol Entertainment”) told the court that Asige herself “exclusively owns and enjoys the master rights” to the song and has “full control over its distribution for commercial benefit.” That did not stop the label from granting KLM, the 6th defendant, exclusive worldwide rights to use and promote the song in a contract dated 12 September 2019, a contract Asige says she never knew about.
On “Ukiwa Mbali,” the defendants took the opposite position: that Sol Generation Records itself owns the full master rights, and Asige is credited only as a contributing artist.
On “Intro,” which appears on the Sauti Sol album “Midnight Train,” the defendants admitted they hold no rights to the recording at all. Under oath, they stated the album “is wholly owned by Universal Music (Pty) Limited” and that Asige’s dispute over that song belongs with Universal, not with them. The court read that admission against the defendants: since Sol Generation had no rights to license in the first place, licensing or syncing “Intro” without Asige’s knowledge was itself evidence of infringement.
On “Extravaganza,” which the plaintiff says was synced to the Netflix series “Country Queen,” the defendants said Asige was only a featured artist entitled to a percentage of publishing and performer’s rights, not a co-owner. On “Favorite Song,” a Bensoul track, they disputed that she contributed to the arrangement at all, saying she sang background vocals only.
The money the ruling confirms
KLM’s own replying affidavit, sworn by its general manager for Nigeria, Ghana, East and Southern Africa, told the court it had paid “more than Kshs. 4,000,000” to Sol Generation Records for use of “Lenga” and “Ukiwa Mbali” under the September 2019 agreement. The court treated that admission, plus the existence of the licensed recordings themselves, as proof that the 1st to 5th defendants had in fact earned revenue from the disputed catalogue, rejecting their argument that they held no royalty information to disclose. No figure beyond that floor is stated anywhere in the ruling; it is not a total price for the five-song dispute, only KLM’s own account of what it paid for two songs.
The contract itself, dated 12 September 2019, granted KLM perpetual rights to any filmed, recorded or photographed material connected to the songs, usable internally and for advertising even after the contract term lapsed. The court found this was not disputed by the 1st to 5th defendants, who also did not dispute that they entered the KLM deal in a purported agency capacity for Asige and the other contributing artists.
What the court ordered
The judge found Asige had established a prima facie case of copyright infringement across all five works and that she would suffer irreparable harm without intervention. She granted a temporary injunction against the 1st to 5th defendants restraining further infringement, and ordered them to deliver, within thirty days of the ruling, a full statement of royalties and revenues and all licensing, assignment and royalty information for the five songs from 2019 onward. KLM was not enjoined: the court accepted, unrebutted, that KLM had already removed the two songs from its Facebook page and found no ongoing infringement by the airline to restrain.
This is an interim ruling on an interlocutory application. It does not decide who ultimately owns what. The main suit, Civil Case E322 of 2022, remains pending; separately reported Kenyan trade coverage from October 2025 describes continuing courtroom testimony and states the hearing was expected to continue into 2026, though no court document newer than this 26 May 2023 ruling was obtained to confirm the case’s current status.
What is not established
Which precise Universal Music corporate entity holds the rights to “Midnight Train” is not established from any document obtained for this record. The ruling itself names “Universal Music (Pty) Limited,” without further corporate detail. Separately reported trade coverage has referred to the same album as released “under Universal Music Africa,” a different company name; this record does not resolve that discrepancy, and the party link attached below to Universal Music (Pty) Ltd, the Johannesburg-headquartered Universal Music Group subsidiary, rests on a name match to the ruling’s own wording, not on independent corporate verification.
No split sheet, publishing registration or written agency agreement between Asige and Sol Generation Records has been produced in any document obtained. Whether the defendants’ positions on “Lenga” and “Ukiwa Mbali,” master ownership assigned to the plaintiff on one song and retained by the label on the other, reflects any written agreement at all is not established; the ruling records the positions as asserted in affidavits, not as terms drawn from a contract the court had before it.
Sources checked
Primary source for this record is the High Court ruling itself, Asige v Sol Generation Records Limited & 5 others (Civil Case E322 of 2022) [2023] KEHC 24541 (KLR) (Commercial and Tax) (26 May 2023), fetched directly and read in full. Corroborating detail on the broader dispute’s timeline, not relied on for any fact stated above as established by the ruling, comes from contemporaneous Kenyan trade and court reporting listed in the sources field.
Full narrative treatment, including what this means for artists working without a signed contract: Sol Generation Records Told a Kenyan Court Three Different Things About Who Owns Crystal Asige’s Music.
