A significant debt crisis is jeopardizing the rollout of Kenya's Competency-Based Education (CBE) as the government's pending bill for school textbooks has surged to Sh7.7 billion.

• The outstanding debt to textbook publishers has risen from Sh4.4 billion in January to the current Sh7.7 billion.
• Key stakeholders include the Basic Education Principal Secretary, Julius Bitok, and various textbook publishing houses.
• This escalating debt highlights systemic issues in the government's direct textbook procurement model, introduced in January 2019, and is further complicated by questionable data from the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS).