Among the four suspects, the driver of a truck used to transport textbooks worth millions of shillings which were abandoned in a public forest in Elgeyo-Marakwet district has been arrested.
“The suspects are detained at various police stations and will be charged once the investigation is complete,” Elgeyo Marakwet Police Chief Peter Mlinge said.
another driver
He is investigating why the contractor used another driver to transport the books from Moran Publishers before they were discovered by a wananchi abandoned along the Kaptagat-Kaptalakwa road two weeks ago. said.
“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.
seized the truck
Police seized a truck in Kisii with the same number plate as the one used to transport textbooks from a publisher to schools in Nyamira County.
However, the truck is blue in contrast to the white truck loaded with textbooks before leaving the publisher's premises.
“What perplexes us is that apart from the color, the truck seized in Kisui has similar characteristics, including the license plate, as the truck that loaded textbooks to the publisher. , we were left with the option of investigating internal CCTV footage to identify the culprits,” Mr Mulinge said.
Recovered textbooks
The recovered textbooks were brought 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.
Under the new system, the state will buy books directly from publishers to address the inequality in which bookstores feel excluded from the distribution chain.
However, Kenya Book Publishers Association president Kamau Kiary called on booksellers to come together and work with publishers to distribute books directly to learning institutions.
The association has tackled issues such as piracy and the high cost of printing books.
