The tax collector and musicians are joining hands in a new initiative to fight piracy that will involve placing stickers on their products to authenticate them as is done with beverages and cigarettes.

This was decided following a meeting last week in Nairobi with Kenya Revenue Authority commissioners, the Music Copyright Society of Kenya officials, local musicians, producers and representatives of performing artistes.

The group representing musicians said that having the stickers would be a good way through which KRA could efficiently collect revenue from them as the sticker would be bought by representatives of musicians.

The appeal by Music Copyright Society was that the Kenya Revenue Authority, through their mandate set out in the Copyright Act, introduce authentication stickers on musicians' products.

"Up to 90 per cent of our proceeds are lost through piracy," said Mr Tom Kodiyo, director of the society.

"It is a vice just like corruption and it is the duty of the government to look into it."

The stickers are expected to help authorised enforcers easily distinguish pirated products from the genuine ones.

There would also be no need for musicians or producers to go along with the police during raids to identify their products.

Currently, musicians do not pay taxes directly. Instead they pay a "service tax