In its first two years or so, it published a number of books and started the free online journal, The Kenya Socialist. It is among the organizations that set up Ukombozi Library and has been working closely with the library. It conducts events such as book launches and other forums to sensitize communities on social and political issues, which are also the subject matter of its publications.
As a publisher working with a library, we connect with a number of community groups whose libraries we helped by donating titles published by Vita Books. The subject areas Vita Books publishes in are influenced very much by the political and information needs of working people in Kenya.
As a neo-colony, Kenya has continued the imperialist-imposed practice of ‘TINA’ (There Is No Alternative – to capitalism and imperialism). This has affected political as well as information struggles in Kenya, as it has in other countries in a similar situation. That is why Vita Books focuses on areas that are obvious ‘vacuum areas’ created by the ruling elites. One such area is socialism as an alternative to capitalism. In this sense, Vita Books has unashamedly taken sides with the struggles of working people and seeks to expose the oppression and exploitation inherent in the current political and economic set-up. That forms the content of what Vita Books publishes.