Kenyan businesswoman Susan Wokabi is suing Microsoft for using her pictures ‘her hands and son Maceo’s foot’ on the company’s billboards without her permission.
Wokabi, who is the CEO of Suzie Beauty Cosmetics and Suzie Beauty shops, claims that the pictures were handed over to the global company’s advertising agency by Muthoni Njomba, a make-up entrepreneur and artist, reports the Standard Digital.
“A year ago, Muthoni approached me and inquired whether she could use I and my son as models for her artwork. She found a professional photographer who captured pictures of my hands and son’s foot,” Wokabi told the Heads Up.
She said she had not imagined they could use the photos for commercial purposes.
Wokabi narrated how she got shocked after her husband informed her that he had seen a similar photo on a Microsoft billboard followed by the words ‘Art Deeper with Windows 8’.
Njomba claims that she had indeed approached Susan and dismissed the allegations that she sold the pictures to Microsoft.
“I actually don’t know what happened because even the photographer had the right to do whatever he wished with the pictures,” said Njomba.
When contacted for a comment, Microsoft Corporation, through its communication and public relations representative Annette Mutuku, promised to get back.
Through Wokabi’s lawyer Kittony and Waiyaki Advocates, the complainant wants compensation for being used as models and a statement by Microsoft that her constitutional right to property was violated, bearing in mind her celebrity status.