Kajiado County wants Tata Chemicals Magadi Limited to pay Sh13 billion in unpaid land rates before the company is allowed to reopen at Lake Magadi, Governor Joseph Ole Lenku said Sunday, adding a fresh demand to a dispute that already has President William Ruto ordering the firm out of the country. Lenku also wants large tracts of the more than 200,000 acres the company holds handed back to residents for grazing. The demands land less than two weeks after Ruto told Tata Chemicals to “pack up their things and leave,” and they set up a standoff that will determine whether, and on what terms, one of Kenya’s oldest industrial operations reopens.
Why is Tata Chemicals Magadi shut down?
Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho suspended Tata Chemicals Magadi Limited’s (TCML) operations on July 28, 2026, ordering a halt until the company fully complied with the Mining Act and its regulations. Joho’s statement pointed to years of unresolved engagement between the State Department for Mining and the company over its statutory obligations.
The suspension escalated on September 3, when Ruto, speaking publicly, told the company to leave Kenya altogether. “I told them to pack up their things and leave. Let them go. These people come here, take our resources and transport them to India and other countries,” he said, according to a report by The Standard. Ruto said the Lake Magadi soda ash licence would go to a new investor instead, one required to build a glass-manufacturing plant and a separate chemicals facility in Kajiado County rather than simply exporting raw soda ash.
Tata Chemicals has operated at Lake Magadi since 1911, when it began as the Magadi Soda Company. Ownership passed through several hands over the following decades before the site became part of the Brunner Mond Group, which Tata Chemicals acquired in 2005. The Kenyan operation was rebranded Tata Chemicals Magadi Limited in 2011, meaning the company itself has run the site for 21 of its 115 years.
What does Kajiado County want?
Speaking on Citizen TV on Saturday, September 13, Lenku framed the company’s presence in Magadi as a case of historical land injustice and said the county is owed years of land rates that TCML has never paid.
“We have many concerns about it. We in the county government are supposed to get our land rates. The company is the only one in the country that does not pay land rates. They owe the county government Ksh13 billion,” Lenku said.
The governor also wants a large share of the land TCML controls returned to the community. He put the company’s total holding at more than 200,000 acres, while the actual soda ash processing footprint covers roughly 11,000 acres.
“Magadi is occupying huge grazing land for our community. The salt is only 11,000 acres, yet they occupy over 200,000 acres of land,” he said, adding that the remainder should go back to residents who depend on it for grazing.
Beyond the cash and the land, Kajiado is pushing for clearer community benefit-sharing terms for whichever company eventually operates the site.
Key facts at a glance
- Amount demanded: Sh13 billion in unpaid land rates, per Governor Lenku
- Total land held by TCML: more than 200,000 acres
- Land actually used for processing: about 11,000 acres
- Operations suspended: July 28, 2026, by Mining CS Hassan Joho
- Closure order: September 3, 2026, by President Ruto
- Site history: operating since 1911; under Tata ownership since 2005
What has Tata Chemicals said?
The company has pushed back on the government’s account. On August 19, before Ruto’s closure order, TCML said it had submitted all the information and documentation the Ministry of Mining had requested and had responded comprehensively to the government’s concerns.
“Tata Chemicals Magadi Limited (TCML) confirms it has submitted all information, reports and documentation requested by the Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs in connection with the suspension of its mining operations,” the company said in a statement, asserting it remains compliant with applicable regulatory requirements. TCML has not, as of this week, issued a fresh public response to either Ruto’s exit order or Lenku’s Sh13 billion demand.
What happens next?
Joho has since set up a high-level technical committee to work through the compliance questions before any suspension can be lifted. Its brief covers mineral beneficiation and in-country value addition, outstanding community benefits and royalty obligations, and the unresolved land matters Lenku raised this week — meaning the county’s Sh13 billion figure now sits squarely inside the committee’s mandate rather than as a separate side dispute.
Ruto’s push to attach a Kajiado glass-manufacturing plant to any new investor’s licence fits a broader pattern this year of the government tying county-level infrastructure and industrial commitments to how it awards public backing, from the Sh19 billion Bomet roads plan unveiled during a South Rift tour to the state’s courting of large-scale private investment seen in Nairobi’s ongoing data centre boom. For Kajiado specifically, the Tata dispute follows other recent county-level governance moves, including the county’s adoption of a One Health plan earlier this year.
No timeline has been set for when Joho’s committee will conclude its review or when — or whether — TCML will be cleared to resume operations. Until then, the soda ash plant that has anchored Magadi’s local economy for more than a century remains idle.
FAQ
How much does Tata Chemicals Magadi allegedly owe Kajiado County?
Governor Joseph Ole Lenku says the company owes Sh13 billion in unpaid land rates, a figure he says has never been settled.
Why did President Ruto order Tata Chemicals to leave Kenya?
Ruto accused the company of operating in Magadi for close to 100 years without meaningfully investing in or benefiting Kajiado County, and said the government would hand the mining licence to a new investor with stricter local investment conditions.
Has Tata Chemicals responded to the closure order?
The company said in August, ahead of Ruto’s September 3 order, that it had submitted all documentation the Ministry of Mining requested and considers itself compliant. It has not issued a new public statement since the closure order or the Sh13 billion demand.
When did mining operations at Lake Magadi stop?
Mining CS Hassan Joho suspended operations on July 28, 2026, pending compliance with the Mining Act; Ruto’s September 3 order escalated the dispute into a full exit demand.
What would a new investor be required to do?
Under Ruto’s conditions, any new licence holder would have to build a glass-manufacturing plant and a separate chemicals-manufacturing facility in Kajiado County, rather than exporting raw soda ash as TCML has done.
By the 254.ke Newsroom.
