Four suspects arrested for dumping textbooks in Elgeyo Marakwet forest

Four suspects arrested for dumping textbooks in Elgeyo Marakwet forest

Four suspects have been arrested as investigations intensify into the dumping of textbooks worth millions of shillings in a public forest in Elgeyo-Marakwet district.

Among those arrested is the driver of a truck used to transport textbooks from Moran Publishing House to schools in Nyamira County.

“The suspects are detained at various police stations and will be arraigned in court once the investigation is complete,” said Elgeyo Marakwet police chief Peter Mlinge.

He said the contractor used another driver to transport the books from the publisher before the books were found abandoned along the Kaptagat-Kaptalakwa road by members of the public two weeks ago. He said he was investigating the reason.

“We would like to establish a relationship between the distributor who contracted to transport the textbooks and the truck driver who went underground after dumping the textbooks in the forest,” said Mr. Mulinge, who also published a cartoon 2 depicting 540 textbooks. He added that the book was missing.

Police have seized a truck in Kisii with a number plate similar to the one used to transport textbooks from Moran Publishing House to schools in Nyamira County.

However, the truck is blue in contrast to the white truck loaded with textbooks before leaving the publishing house.

“What perplexes us is that apart from the color, the truck seized in Kisui has similar characteristics, including the number plate, to the truck in which the publisher stocked the textbooks. This left us with the option of investigating internal CCTV footage to identify the culprits,” Mr Mulinge said.

The recovered textbooks were taken to Kaptagat Police Station and later delivered to schools in Nyamira District.

The government has changed the book distribution module to schools to curb the theft of learning materials and ensure fair distribution.

In the new module, the government will buy books directly from publishers to address inequalities with booksellers who feel excluded from the distribution chain.

However, Kenya Book Publishers Association president Kamau Kiarie called on booksellers to come together and work with publishers to enable them to distribute books directly to schools.

The association has tackled issues such as piracy and the high cost of printing books.