Police have found 540 cartons of textbooks meant for schools in Nyamira County in Elgeyo Marakwet County.
Keiyo South Sub-County Police Commandant Abdulahi Dahir said that the books belong to secondary and Junior Secondary Schools in Nyamira North and Nyamira South sub-counties.
He said that members of the public alerted the police about the books that were discovered in Kaptagat Forest along the Kaptagat-Kaptarakwa road.
“The area chief alerted us after receiving reports of the abandoned consignment in Kaptagat Forest. That place is not busy and it has a poor network,” he told the Nation on the phone.
“The publisher informed us that there is a firm which was contracted to transport the books to the schools. They have also shared the particulars of the firm which will help us trace the driver who was ferrying the books,” he stated.
The police boss said that detectives visited the area and cordoned it off. The books were taken to Kaptagat Police Station.
The previous government changed the distribution model of books to schools in a bid to curb the theft of learning materials and ensure equitable distribution. The government changed the distribution model by buying books directly from publishers to address inequalities, with booksellers feeling locked out of the distribution chain.
In a past interview, Kenya Book Publishers’ Association chairperson Kamau Kiarie encouraged booksellers to join hands and engage publishers to distribute books directly to schools.
“There was a feeling that books were not reaching schools. Today, if you go to any school you will find that the ratio of learner to book is 1:1. Isn’t it to the benefit of the Kenyan child? Isn’t it to benefit Kenyan parents? Isn’t it beneficial that finally learners can learn, gain knowledge, pass examinations and therefore transform this country?
“However, not all is lost. There still exist opportunities in the distribution aspects. We want to encourage booksellers to organise themselves in groups or associations so that they engage us and be contracted to deliver the books to schools. For instance, depending on their capacity they can deliver books in a respective county or two or more counties. We are paying a lot of money to people who don’t have any idea of what book distribution is all about. Let them (booksellers) not see this as a challenge but an opportunity,” said Mr Kiarie.
However, the Kenya Book Publishers’ Association has been grappling with piracy, the high cost of printing books and other issues in the book industry.
