KLB stuck with Sh600m dead stock after curriculum review

KLB MD George Okeyo when he appeared before the National Assembly Education Committee at Parliament on September 10, 2026. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Members of the National Assembly are concerned about the huge dead stock of Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) books worth Sh600 million lying at the Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB).

The National Assembly Committee on Education has heard that KLB is struggling with the dead stock for the CBC first edition, estimated at Sh600 million, following the review of the curriculum-based learning areas on the recommendations of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER).

The MPs also agreed that PWPER recommendations may have brought in some confusion, especially as far as books produced were concerned and a solution is required to avoid wastage.

This came as KLB Managing Director George Okeyo cited declining revenue due to reduced textbook orders and increased competition, coupled with rising production costs of raw materials, including paper, printing materials, energy and logistics, thus reducing profit margins.

“The book industry in its current form is commercial and we cannot allow the education sector to be watered down. I urge this House to rein in what is happening behind the scenes so that the content that gets to our children can be of value,” he told the committee.

He also told Parliament about delayed settlement of receivables from Government institutions and particularly County Governments, thus affecting cash flow and liquidity.

Okeyo also cited the operational cost of production, citing ageing printing equipment leading to production inefficiencies and high maintenance costs, as well as rising costs of production and printing materials and inputs.

“The institution requires assistance in modernisation of production and printing infrastructure as well as the reduction of taxes for some critical raw materials such as paper, ink and plates.  There is a need to diversify revenue sources, including Government printing works,” he told the committee.

KLB is mandated to publish and print quality educational and knowledge materials at affordable prices, while promoting authorship and creating customer and shareholder value.

KLB has been self-sustaining and financed all its operations from internally generated resources with no Exchequer funding from the 1980s to date.

Kitutu Masaba MP Clive Gisairo sought an explanation on how KLB ended with such dead stock.

“Before you produce, you need to know your stock; you just do not print. How did you end up with all this stock? PWPER changed things but what prompted you to print so much material? Are you over-budgeting, and then you are not able to absorb?” Gisairo posed.

But KLB Finance Manager, Francis Mutunga, explained that the PWPER team was appointed in 2022 and by that time, implementation of CBC was already underway from Pre-Primary (PP) 1 to Grade 8 and there was a good demand for books.

But in the final report, the working party rationalised the learning areas, yet KLB had already printed the books in line with the CBC requirements at the time.

“At the time, it was a high season period which happens between November and December because this is the time that parents buy stock in preparation for January. But the PWPER rationalisation of subjects, for instance, Agriculture merged with Home Science into a subject called Agriculture and Nutrition and now the initial ones cannot be used,” he explained.

He noted that the current curriculum design is combined, yet KLB had already committed the paper and monies that covered PP1 through to Grade and from Financial Year 2024/25 they have not been able to rescue their funds while the liabilities continue to grow.

KLB also told the committee that they wrote to the Ministry of Education and National Treasury, where they informed the two entities, proposing that since the books in question had the CBC syllabus, the Government should consider purchasing them for reference purposes, as part of addressing the Sh600 million shortfall.

“If we were to write off such an amount of Sh600 million, we would seriously destabilise our financial statements,” he added.

Other than the issue of dead stock, the session chaired by Kabondo Kasipul MP Eve Obara also raised concern over KLB operating without a substantive board for about six months.

“You have not had a board since March. What bottlenecks have been created in running tasks and we can see where the problem is; what do you want us to do for you? Again, KLB never cried for money but here we are; what exactly is happening?” posed Obara.

The MD explained that the term of the board ended in March when KLB was in transition from a State Corporation to a Government Owned Enterprise (GOE) under the National Treasury with effect from December last year, when the GOE Act, 2025 became effective.

KLB has thus been operating without a board from March to date, as the MPs called for urgency on the matter to ensure operations at the institution run smoothly.

He also highlighted the performance of Appropriations-in-Aid (AIA) for the financial year 2025/26, ending June 30 this year relative to the approved targets.

For instance, sales of books to bookshops underperformed, attributed to low open-market book demand by bookshops and customers, impacted mainly by lower disposable incomes for households, while the bulk order sales promotion activity recorded lower-than-projected uptake.