When a friend alerted Douglas Logedi that his book Chasing a Bullet had been spotted on a roadside stall in Cambodia, thousands of kilometres from Kenya, she could not initially believe it and had to double-check.
The cover was unmistakable. The title, the font and even the dedication were intact, just like the original. What was missing, however, was the publisher’s seal and the price. The book was selling at less than half its official cost.
For context, books are generally expensive in the Southeast Asian nation. But Mr Logedi has no distribution rights in Cambodia, and that alone confirmed what he already suspected: the copy was pirated.
Cover of the book Chasing a Bullet' by Douglas Logeti Luhangala.
Photo credit: File | Nation
Putting a monetary value on the loss was difficult. What was easier to account for were the hours, the labour, and the emotional investment it took to write the book.
“I felt robbed, annoyed and disappointed,” Mr Logedi says of learning that years of his work were being sold illegally on the streets.
But more than anything, he felt helpless.
That moment, replayed daily across Kenya’s streets and digital platforms, captures the quiet crisis facing authors and publishers. Book piracy, a vice that thrives in plain sight, feeds off weak enforcement, high book prices, and a growing informal economy.
From Asia to downtown Nairobi, from estate pavements to bus termini, pirated books are stacked openly. Be it exam guides, academic texts, novels, or even children’s books. Some are poorly photocopied. Others are near-perfect counterfeits.
Increasingly, piracy has moved online with PDFs shared through WhatsApp groups, Telegram channels, and cloud links.
The trade is now rampant in Nakuru, Kisii, Busia, and Mombasa and other metropolitan towns in the country. But Nairobi remains the nerve centre, according to publishers. And a new trend is emerging.
“The people who are engaging in this illegal trade are printing offshore and shipping the books to Kenya. And they are using state-of-the-art printers out there,” says the CEO of East African Educational Publishers, Kiarie Kamau.
The publisher estimates that the industry loses between Sh250 million and Sh400 million annually. Mr Kamau said textbooks and academic titles are the hardest hit.
For authors, however, the losses go beyond balance sheets.
“Of course, no one is going to feel good that their work is being pirated and sold out there,” says Mr Logedi, whose books have also been pirated in Uganda.
Copies of Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary.
Photo credit: File | Nation
According to publishers, mass-market books — particularly school textbooks — are prime targets because they are bought in large quantities.
The Kenya Copyright Board (Kecobo) says in a public statement that piracy spikes between November and March, which coincides with publishers’ peak selling season. Dictionaries, atlases, kamusi (Kiswahili dictionary), and school textbooks are especially vulnerable because, as Kecobo observes, “they are bought in huge quantities.”
In recent days, the copyright board has raided and seized dozens of pirated copies of Kamusi ya Kiswahili Sanifu, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, and Fathers of Nations set books belonging to Oxford University Press in Nairobi and other towns. A number of suspects have been arrested and arraigned.
“Let this serve as a warning to all infringers. The crackdown on book piracy is ongoing. Kecobo will continue enforcing the law to protect creators and publishers,” the board warns.
Copyright infringement is a criminal offence in Kenya and is punishable by fines and imprisonment. Yet unlike physical theft, piracy leaves the original intact, and its damage is harder to quantify.
Authors speak of lost royalties, cancelled reprints, and strained relationships with publishers. Some, as a result of demotivation, delay releasing new work. Others avoid certain genres altogether, especially school and academic publishing, where piracy is most rampant.
For Mr Logedi, the danger is existential.
“We are putting ourselves in a situation where our stories will not be told. Our Kenyan stories, our African stories will not be told because the people who could have told them have been demotivated, have been discouraged, and cannot do it anymore,” he says.
“But it's just important for people to try and sell the real material to support our own. We do both buy Kenya, visit Kenya, but we don't put it too much around literary and artistic work.”
Yet for the pirates, they often justify their trade by pointing to affordability.
“People want books, but they cannot afford original copies,” says a street vendor, who spoke anonymously. “We are just meeting the demand.”
On the other side, publishers acknowledge the tension. Rising production costs, taxes, and distribution challenges have pushed book prices up, especially for textbooks. But they insist piracy is not the answer.
“Pirated books compromise quality and accuracy,” says Mr Kamau. But everyone in the chain suffers, beginning from the author, to the publishers and the end users of the pirated products, Mr Kamau explains.
“Most people can’t differentiate the originals from the counterfeits,” says Kecobo Chief Inspector Leah Koech, urging caution. “If we avoid buying books, which most of the times is way cheaper than the market rates, from hawkers, it could help.”
“We (Kecobo) create awareness. We sometimes educate. We advise the public to consider buying books from the authorized vendors,” she adds.
