Business is doing extremely well for second-hand textbook dealers in Mombasa as parents flock their shops to buy texts ahead of the reopening of schools in January.
Most parents in Mombasa have opted to go to second-hand dealers to get books for their children with many complaining that the cost of new textbooks has become too high in bookstores.
“For us to be coming here to get books, this shows you how difficult life has been. The government needs to do something about costs of textbooks,” said Mariam, a parent.
The second-hand dealers on the other hand are reaping in their business as most parents are now coming to them.
The dealers have however expressed a challenge of the government changing course textbooks every year and this affects their sales.
“We had books from last year that we thought we would sell this year but we found it hard as the government changes the course textbooks,” added Javan, another parent.
Meanwhile, parents might be forced to pay more for textbooks as The Kenya Publishers Association (KPA) had on Monday said that the cost of textbooks will increase due to the depreciation of the local currency which had led to the rising cost of producing books.