By The Anti-Imperialist Network interviewed a representative of the Ukombozi Library in June 2026. The Ukombozi Library is a political center in Nairobi, Kenya that connects socialist study and community organizing—mostly among the informal settlements of the city.
Anti-Imperialist Network (AIN): I first of all would like to thank you for making time to sit and speak with us and to share your knowledge and perspective.
Ukombozi Library Organizer (UL): You are welcome.
AIN: What is the Ukombozi Library and how would you describe its mission to somebody who is not familiar with the organization?
UL: Ukombozi Library is a library which specializes on books to do with the resistance; focusing mostly on resistance that is anti-imperialist and that advocates for better a society and socialism. The library was started around 2017 by three organizations: Vita Books, Mau Mau Research Center, and the Mwakenya December Twelfth Movement (MKDTM). These are the three institutions that established this library. We realized that some of the classic books – books to do with socialism – were mostly not available, and we wanted to create a space where people could easily access them. The other reason is that libraries in Kenya are mostly associated with academia. Ordinary people, especially the peasants, the workers, and people who live in informal settlements, feel intimidated when they visit the library. They feel that the libraries are not their place, and are for certain people, academics and others. So we wanted to break that kind of culture and allow ordinary people to feel that they also need a library. This is that library.
Since we started, most of the people—especially those living and organizing in the informal settlements—see the library as their home. They come and borrow books. So the other part to debunk is this idea that the library is for academic or pedagogical stuff and those kinds of things. To ordinary people, the library is not theirs. And this is a kind of a thing people have been conditioned to think something like: “Library? What do we need a library for?” So this was one of the reasons that we established this library.
AIN: And Ukombozi library describes itself as more than a traditional library. Can you explain what that means in practice?
UL: One thing about Ukombozi library—it is not based in only reading books. This is a space we give people; we allow people to organize themselves. Because one thing that we need to understand is that we are reading to change the society. And to change society you need to get organized. This is a space we give comrades and other people as a space to organize.
Apart from that, its not books only. We also visit different areas, try to approach the people, and try to politicize the people through our own activities. We also have a research and design team. We also try to be knowledgeable; to produce knowledge. In order to produce knowledge you need to do research. This is the kind of thing that we are doing. We are not a traditional library that you go to read books and then one is finished. Once you read the books, you study together. This is one of the reasons we came up with study sessions. And this is not only theory. This should help you as well. Once you go to your own area, try to organize and try to change the situation there, change the society there. So this is one of the reasons why we say we are not a traditional, typical library.
AIN: So not just a space to consume knowledge, but also when you are studying together to maybe produce knowledge even and then also to inspire practice?
UL: Exactly. Because that is what study is meant for. Once you study you cannot let that knowledge just say in your head, it doesn’t help. You need to use that knowledge bring the change. Because there is suffering and when you analyze capitalism you see how things are. So the issue is to get that knowledge, to change the status quo. That is what we believe in.
AIN: Amazing. And you mentioned the study sessions. Could you tell us what they are and how they were started?
UL: Actually, the study sessions were started even before the library. Before the establishment of the library, I was a member of the MKDTM. The MKDTM is an underground movement which has a history from the 70s up to 2000-something. It has its own history, and this movement was advocating and has been advocating for Marxism, socialism, and all those kinds of things—challenging the status quo. In the 70s and 80s the Kenyan political environment was very harsh because all the regimes were pro-West, and anything to do with socialism was curtailed. The MKDTM used to advocate for an alternative, socialist regime. In the 80s, some members were arrested. But it continued to exist since then and one of it’s roles was to politicize the masses and also to ground cadres—to ground cadres by trying to study with them. So this is what, as a member of the MKDTM, I was doing even before Ukombozi library.
So when MKDTM became one part of establishing the library, we continued with this kind of a thing. And now we have a space. We try to look especially for young students at universities and activists on the grassroots level, and we started inviting them to Ukombozi library. We came up with a plan whereby every Monday from five to seven in the evening we study together. It started around 2017 and has continued all the way up to the present time—each and every Monday. These sessions have brought about—you cannot imagine—other people forming study groups in their own localities!
We started at the library. Then we started going to the communities and started studying together with them. If there were also other organizations in the community, Ukombozi would study with them too. And eventually they would get the importance of studying and then start on their own. For example, the Mathares Social Justice Center (1) —we used to study together and then they went to continue on their own. That’s why we insist on study sessions, because it grounds you and helps you to maneuver in this kind of a capitalist system; where the ruling class and the regime are so oppressive. Without grounding, you are doomed to make numerous mistakes. Which kind of a suicidal thing if you are doing political work and this kind of activism.
AIN: I am familiar with the concept of grounding from Walter Rodney. But maybe you could explain how you understand the concept, what it means, and why it is important. I mean, you explained already why it is important to the work, but maybe just to clarify what exactly that process means and why it is central to Ukombozi’s work.
UL: Most people face challenges, societal problems and all those kind of things, but they only see the face value of those problems. For example, they see the lack of employment, they see the shortage of drugs in hospitals, they see police harassing people. (Which you know, if you try to organize people, police come to intervene and all those kind of things). They don’t understand where these problems are coming from because it is hidden from them. The capitalist educational system which has been there, the ruling class system of education, has made people ignorant. And this is a deliberate move.
Grounding is to let people know what is actually causing these kinds of things. The other thing is that you have to be scientific. Scientific analysis helps the masses—those people—to understand this in scientific way. This is what I call grounding; helping the people understand reality. And to understand reality is to understand the contradictions of reality and how to maneuver. If you let people remain the old way, you keep repeating the same formula. For example, when there are oppressions, people call for demonstrations. You see this in most capitalist countries in this region. They say, “ah! There is something that is challenging somewhere, let’s organize and have our demonstrations.” But once you’re grounded, you realize, no, in this system, we need to think harder. We need to be organized. It is not only a matter of demonstration. We need to have an organization. Once you are grounded you realize we need more than demonstrations.
These demonstrations and reforms are kind of a painkiller. I keep telling people that there if is a serious disease a physician might suggest a surgery. When you’re grounded, you understand that you need the surgery not just painkillers. Surgery is not easy. It is bloody, it is painful, but there is a way it can be done. So this is what I’m talking about, grounding is to understand the way things are and try to change them.
We make sure that people learn about class analysis so they do not go blindly. In our study sessions, there is a topic on class analysis.
Because when you are organizing people you might be organizing together with the capitalists or the oppressors, without knowing. And then when once they betray you, you start complaining. Class analysis and grounding will help you to understand that, you know, these people are not the same as the oppressed. Maybe I will work with the middle class, but I know when we come to a point where they back off, I will not be surprised. That’s why I insist on studying. But people used to disagree all the time when I was to advocate for study. Because the way we have been schooled, you have that academic kind of thinking. But the study we are talking about is a bit different, and is meant to ground.
AIN: And could you tell us a little bit more about the Ukombozi Library’s relationship with the various communities that you are in connection with?
UL: We established the library because we wanted to bring change and empower people. To bring change, you need to work with the people. The people at the grassroots level are organized in different ways. They have community groups. So we started befriending them then working and studying together. Eventually we came to realize that not many people like reading a book or a paper. Some people, once they finish school, don’t want to anything to do with books. So what we started doing is screening documentaries. We come to the communities with revolutionary documentaries and then after watching the documentary, we would have a discussion. This helps us to link with the masses, the community groups.
Another other thing we realized is that the communities does not have books. So we came up with an idea of having a community membership. Instead of only individual memberships to the library, an entire community can register as a member, whereby it is allowed to borrow at least five publications. They go back to their, communities and stay with those books for about two months, and once they finish reading the books they bring them back.
Most of the activists around also know this space and, as I have said, they refer to Ukombozi this as their library, also. They feel that they are part of the library. Because that is what we advocate for: whenever they need something, especially whenever there is a meeting among different organizations, Ukombozi Library is where people prefer, because it’s a center. This is the kind of rapport we have. We have tried to collaborate with those kinds of groups.
AIN: And that’s amazing, the work that you have done that way. And also, just before the interview, two young people came into the door and they said, “Hello, we’re looking for Ukombozi Library. Can we look around?” Which is something very nice to see, especially as you said, many people, after leaving school, may be not so interested in studying in general including these kinds of political topics. So I’m wondering how that works with Ukombozi Library, how do you go out to reach the masses? How do you draw them to the library?
UL: Since we started this library, we have been serving more young people. Young people are vibrant. They are not rigid and they want to know. So, generally those are the people we have been focusing on. The other thing that we have realized is that we need to move with the times. Now, people are online. Therefore, we came up with social media platforms, and whatever we preach, we share on our social platforms. Some people get surprised when they come across the kind of things we share online, because they are unique, you know? We share whatever we believe in, the kind of books we have, especially about socialism and anti-imperialism. So no wonder that you see some people coming here.
Not many libraries keep the kind of books we have, especially when it comes to anti-imperialism and socialism or books to do with the underground, the revolution, the Mau-Mau. This is the only place you can find those kind of classic books around. So our posts about these books you can find in the Ukombozi Library are what bring many people. These are some of the people we try to befriend. If there are people who are interested in these kinds of books, we try to attract them to our study sessions. It has generated interest for us over the years and, you know, we started small and we would like to be to remain the way we are. Over the years—I don’t know what has happened—the name Ukombozi has spread all over and people think this is a big library. But we do our best to keep ourselves humble. Our main drive is to work, to let our work define us. So that’s what we have been always focused on, and not to go away from our main mission because our main mission is to empower people.
Another thing about the library is that sometimes if you’re not cautious, not grounded, not careful, you might find yourself slowly diverting from your mission. And this is something that we have been struggling with, because our mission is to empower people and also to make sure people knows about these materials. And apart from that, as I keep on repeating, we want to bring about a better society than what we have. Advocating for socialism, we don’t shy from it. Advocating for an alternative system, not the kind of system we have. We have been trying to make sure that we don’t divert from our mission, a vision of a society where this kind of injustice would be past, as opposed to present time, where the few benefit from the majority. That’s our goal.
Usually, there is a temptation of becoming liberal and that’s our main challenge; to fight, to stay on that revolutionary line. It’s not easy because you must bring in other people, but you are not all the same. They might not share the same ideology as a library. There are liberal people who come as members. And because they are not grounded they advocate for things which are positive to them but, since we are grounded, we realize are things that will divert us from our mission. So the challenge is how to manage these kinds of diversions. Because if you are not grounded and you come with an idea innocently—it’s not that you are malicious but that you want to help the library—but it’s a kind of a liberal idea, it will divert us. So this is a struggle. We are trying to overcome these kind of things. But the most important thing is to keep our mission, to cultivate a better society. Especially socialism. We cannot divert from that. That’s why the library was started because there are no socialist materials around. People are struggling to find them. Now people cannot complain; we have all of Lenin’s works, some of the collections of Marx, Mao Zedong, and the documents of the underground movement or socialist movements here in our country. I told you about these movements, all their materials we have. Digitization was another process we have started this year.
AIN: You mentioned that the library is not just having books that people can borrow but it’s also an archive of sorts, with historical documents. So I’m wondering what challenges there have been for preserving these documents in Kenya and the wider challenges of accessing these documents for people outside of the library.
UL: That has been a main challenge ever since we started. One thing that I have realized is that if this office is invaded, and those materials which are rare to get are taken, especially those of the underground that’s it. So over the years we have been struggling with how this material can be digitized. And we have, to an extent, been desperate in a way: we sought funding from a university which we did not know. But the condition was that they had to keep the copy. Whatever we digitized we would give them. And that is a condition among those people who have digitization technology. You digitized and then you give them on copy. It has been challenging, but this year there was an organization called African Digital Heritage that surprised us. They told us, you know, “We have secured the funding for you people to digitize the materials. And this material will be yours. You don’t need to share it with anyone.” That was big. And it happened this year. Actually this process started around April. They have also started buying equipment for us. Now we are in the process of digitization, of cataloguing and coding and all those kind of things before we start actually digitizing. So this is something we have been trying to navigate. We hope that by December, we will have finished digitization by launch of the website. We have set December 12 as our day of launching the website. So once that is done, once everything is digitized, we will not be afraid of, suppose the building gets burned down, you know? It can happen. So that has been our worry. But at least now we are a bit safe. Hopefully by December, we will have digitized a greater number of publications.
AIN: What can we as people who are involved in international solidarity, especially from an anti-imperialist perspective, do to be in solidarity with your mission, with your organization going forward?
UL: I think that solidarity is crucial. The challenge has been books. Sourcing books, that’s what has been our challenge. Contributing whatever you have, that’s wonderful. Maybe try to share what we are talking about. Because that is another avenue we have as a library. We have two publications as Ukombozi.
We have the Ukombozi review. We realized that the people organizing in slums, in informal settlements, are doing a lot of work, good stuff, but this is not documented. (I think you visited Kairore, all those people, and you heard their own stories). So our aim is to encourage those people, those comrades, to write their own stories and then the Ukombozi review can edit those stories and publish all of these people struggle, as we call them. That was the inspiration for Ukombozi review. Because we realized that whatever you were told by those people, you never heard it anywhere else. So how come whatever they are doing can’t be captured so other people can read about it? It’s published quarterly, every three months.
Apart from that, we want to promote socialism. We realized that in Kenya there’s no magazine that focuses on socialism. Kenya has been a capitalist society, and anything to do with socialism as been maliciously distorted in a way. So we started the Kenya Socialist magazine (2) to promote socialism, to let people understand socialism, the contradictions and so on. We encourage people to write analytical pieces also. However, as you know, we don’t have many resources for Kenyan Socialist, it takes time; because people use their spare time to write, and you need to survive while trying to survive, and you’re not earning something from it. It’s discouraging. It’s not that writers aren’t willing to write, but because of hardship and all those kind of things it’s hard for them to focus on it. So it takes time to publish, and sometimes you don’t get articles in time. In the recent issue we had only four authors, because not many people were able to even though we tried to encourage people to send articles—but we understand. The aim is to keep this thing, the issue of socialism, alive and to analyze things.
We were discussing Haiti before the interview. Haiti’s people knew when the Kenyan president had a meeting with the US government, and was asked to send troops, police, to Haiti. (3) The president came up with propaganda saying, you know, Kenya has been asked by UN nations, to assist. And if you know the history of Haiti, you understand that that is not the case. So I said “No, no, no. People, we have to debunk this!” And that’s why I researched Haiti, the history, what has been happening, the role of the US in what is being done there. And then we worked to show people no the idea of sending troops to Haiti is wrong. Showing them this imperialist thing, you know? This is imperialist! So this is what we try, as a magazine, to do: promoting socialism and being anti-imperialist.
Ukombozi has partnered with Vita Books (4) and is now our publishing unit. Everything we publish is all to do with anti-imperialism and promoting socialism. Some people who approach us, and say, “Why won’t you publish my book for the Kenyan market?” It’s not about money. It’s about promoting anti-imperialism and socialism. If you bring books about anti-imperialism to other publishers, they refuse. Whatever amount we get from the sales is pumped back into publishing. So that’s what we do as Vita Book publishing.
Another example of solidarity is we started a course on Marxism in a partnership with the Marx Memorial Library in London. So far we have conducted three courses. The first course was about trade unions. The second was an introduction to Marxist economics, and for the last course was a basic introduction to Marxism itself. So that is a course that Ukombozi conducted. We approached the Marx Memorial Library and they helped us with the training model. It is a kind of software which is used by the student, they assisted us with it. The student can login and have all the materials there.
We are planning to do three courses this year. The second course we are thinking of is about Pan-Africanism and Socialism. The third is about Women and Marxism. We believe about twenty-seven participants are planned. It is usually an eight week course. We give people materials to study for two weeks. And then we have a zoom session after the two weeks. Then we summarize and ask people to say whatever they learned from the materials if they have any questions. So that course is one of the activities we do.
People are welcome to assist through a donation of books, or any kind of solidarity: sharing materials, maybe the Kenya Socialist website. You can share it so people can learn about us and our work. We are open to any kind of solidarity like that. But the main the main aim is not to divert from our line. That is our struggle, and that is our challenge. Overcoming this temptation without offending the people, without offending the your fellow comrades—this is a challenge you have to navigate. And you have to navigate it by being grounded. That’s why we keep on. That’s why we insist on this study. And reading and also studying and grounding ourselves. And also once you ground yourself don’t stop there. Do something. Try to practice wherever you are.
AIN: Long live political study. Long live.
UL: So that is Ukombozi. And feel welcome anytime. We make sure to keep on telling people: It’s your home. This is your place. This comradeship, we like cultivating this comradeship.
AIN: Thank you. We will very much. And we will definitely share and spread and make people aware that they can send their books here and any other ways that they can be in solidarity. Thank you!
Notes:
- Mathare Social Justice Centre is a community-based organization in Mathare, Nairobi that advocates for social justice and human rights documentation.
- You can find copies of the Kenya Socialist on the Vita Books website. https://www.vitabooks.co.ke/theKenyaSocialist
- Beginning in 2024, the United States coordinated with Kenyan President William Ruto to station hundreds of Kenyan police in Haiti with a stated purpose of restoring order and combatting gang violence. This action was approved by the United Nations Security Council with Russia and China as abstentions. US led imperialism is responsible for the ongoing destabilization of Haitian society and these security interventions are a method of solidifying neocolonial control. Kenyan police were used as a black face of the imperialist system. President Ruto claimed the intervention was a strong commitment to “pan-africanism” that maintained the “dignity” of Haiti as a Black republic. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/kenyan-police-haiti-revitalizing-diaspora-engagement-expanding-role-women-and-reexamining, https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15432.doc.htm
- https://www.vitabooks.co.ke/
