The knowledge industry is the foundation of modern society. Without it, life would be poor, nasty, brutish, short, and savage to paraphrase Thomas Hobbes, one of the philosophers who spent considerable time grappling with the question of how humanity can harness the power of knowledge to improve the quality of life for all.

The industry has two pillars: The software — also technically known as pedagogy — and the hardware — the books, learning and teaching materials. The first is what teachers do for a living. The second is what publishers supply to facilitate meaningful teaching and learning.

And whereas teachers are paid a regular salary, the ministry of Education is letting down both teachers and learners by failing to pay publishers, who it now owes a staggering Sh3 billion. This can only mean one thing: The government is not interested in growing the knowledge industry, and by inference, it is happy to see children wallowing in ignorance at a time when the global economy is driven by knowledge more than by any other natural or man-made resource.

That the ministry won’t pay and can’t pay is mind-boggling. This is the government agency with the single largest allocation in the annual budget. In the 2025-26 Budget, the ministry was allocated Sh702.7 billion in July.

As such, the Cabinet Secretary, Julius Ogamba, has no reason to claim that there is no money to pay for books or promise that he will authorise payment “when funds become available” as past ministers used to say when questioned about their unfulfilled promises.

In addition to supporting the national agenda of creating a knowledge economy, publishers are also in business. They fill a gap that the government and its agencies — such as the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) — lacks capacity to bridge.

It is not practically possible for an agency like KICD, for instance, to develop the curriculum designs for all levels of education and then write and publish all the books schools need.

As such, when it chooses, on its own motion, to outsource the critical services of preparing books for publication and selling them, it must, as a matter of legal obligation, behave like a good corporate citizen and pay its debt the same way the Teachers Service Commission pays teachers without fail.

It is not clear where the pungent malpractice of government agencies failing to meet their fiduciary obligations came from, but it is a reprehensible culture that needs to stop.

When public institutions routinely and brazenly fail to pay private investors who have supplied goods and services, they are not only hurting the businesses and the livelihoods of those involved.

They are also undermining the national economy because they hoard money that should otherwise be circulating and creating value in the economy.

Pending bills, which are nothing more than bad debts owed by public agencies, should not be normalised yet these institutions present their budgets to the National Assembly for approval every June.

That means money is allocated but public servants deliberately sabotage investors in the hope of getting kickbacks before releasing the money. In the case of the education sector, this should be treated as a crime against humanity because we are risking consigning children to ignorance at a point in history where knowledge is king.

Now a crisis is brewing, with publishers warning that they will not be able to supply Grade Ten books unless the government releases the Sh3 billion it owes them for Grade Nine books. Publishers, like all businesses, also have financial obligations to other players in the value chain, particularly printers and distributors.

Holding their money for longer than is necessary, therefore, affects others in the value chain and disrupts the same businesses that the government still expects will pay their taxes dutifully. The delay simply does not make sense, no matter how one looks at it.

According to the chairman of the Kenya Publishers Association, Mr Kiarie Kamau, industry players need at least Sh5 billion to prepare next year’s Grade 10 materials for 35 learning areas.

The volume of work ahead is humongous. The money needed to do this represents a major investment, not just in the business of making books but more importantly, of preparing today’s teenagers for the rapidly changing world of work that awaits them a few years from now.

This is, therefore, not the time to play ping pong games with the future of these young people, who also happen to be the pioneer class of the Competence Based Education system. In fact, the question of whether to justify why the money owed should be paid at once should not arise in the first place. The ministry owes these children a debt of duty. It is that simple.

mbugua@nairobilawmonthly.com