On September 3, 2026, Kenyan President William Ruto made a momentous announcement that symbolized the end of an era of colonial legacy in the industrial sector of this African country.
A Century-Old Trona Extractor Shown the Door
Are We Slaves to Other People?
As President Ruto lamented Tata Chemicals’ failure to build industries and social infrastructure on September 3, he proceeded to ask, “Are we slaves to other people?” — a question that is hard to dismiss for many reasons. For instance, the company has almost exclusively benefited from the land and mineral concessions it gained from the colonial government for a century. The company has mined Trona, processed it into Soda Ash, and sold it abroad while the neighboring communities have remained in abject poverty. Meanwhile, it has engineered dependency among the surrounding African community. While it claims to be providing water, healthcare, and education to the community, the said water is largely accessed only as long as it continues operating. Some local community members were already unable to access water a few days after its operations were shut, meaning that it had never thought of connecting residents to water supplies for the entire century of its operation. Similarly, while claiming to provide 75%-subsidized healthcare to residents, it also reported that residents were too poor to access the same care. Maybe community members would be richer if their land had not been conceded to some foreign firm by the colonial government in the 1920s.
The debate concerning Magadi comes at a crucial moment, especially after titanium mining operations in Kwale, Kenya, were closed in 2024 (after 10 years), when the ore was exhausted. These mining operations left no industry and brought fewer returns to the government compared to those earned by other players in the value chain. For instance, in 2022, the company involved, Base Titanium, reported $279.1 million in revenue and a net profit of $80.7 million, while Kenya earned $64.8 million in taxes and royalties. Without a policy shift, the Trona resource in Magadi, or crude oil in Uganda, among other resources, will be exhausted and leave the communities poor. In the case of titanium mining, Base Titanium earned the highest value, while other players in the value chain also extracted value that Kenya was unable to capture.
Calls for the creation of downstream industries for Trona align with the UN Trade and Development recommendation that Africa should add value to its raw materials to enhance economic development and resilience. It also foregrounds the challenges associated with resources that were conceded to foreign transnational companies by colonial governments that had no legitimacy. It is curious how Tata Chemicals, which started operations in the colonial era, retained access after independence in 1963 and also under the Constitution of Kenya 2010. There is a need for mineral resources in Magadi and other places to be awarded competitively to investors willing to work under existing laws and pursue those that are more representative of Kenyans’ interests.
Tata Chemicals has accumulated extractive inertia as a beneficiary of massive colonial land concessions from the British, making it unfit for Kenyans’ current needs. In the 1920s, the colonial government awarded eye-watering 211,104 acres at Lake Magadi and 11,678 at Lake Natron, including, rights to prospect for, extract, and carry away trona to commercial entities, plus an additional 2,200 acres for a railway lease. Tata Chemicals ended up using only a small percentage of the land and hoarding the rest. The firm should release the land back to the government and potential competitors. Were the hoarded land to be sold, leased, or used for economic activities by the county government, it would have provided sufficient money for schools, hospitals, and water supply, services that the company now uses to blackmail residents and the government. Tata Chemicals has refused to align its operations with new Kenyan laws, especially the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and the Mining Act of 2016, requiring firms exploiting Kenyans’ natural resources to share proceeds with county governments and local communities. It has also failed to create manufacturing value chains.
A Case for Downstream Manufacturing for Trona
As opposed to allowing colonial-era transnational corporations to profit from Africa’s resources through exports, it is time Africans facilitated the development of downstream industries. This move will create high-value products, provide high-paying employment, and pull Africans out of poverty. It will also provide governments with the revenue needed to provide social services. Luckily, the mineral resource in question in Magadi is a raw material for many industries. While all the Trona mined in Magadi, Kenya, may not be used in manufacturing, as much of it as possible can be used to make a wide range of glass products, such as flat glass, architectural glass, containers, and bottles. These products are consumed in large volumes in Kenya’s vibrant economy. Some of it should also be used to make soaps and detergents, chemicals for water treatment, papermaking, and metallurgy, among others. Surprisingly, Tata Chemicals did not even think of manufacturing soaps and detergents, among the simplest industrial processes that could create more value from Kenyans’ resources. However, no one should expect a beneficiary of extractive colonial concessions to think of meaningful industrialization, making it crucial to look for new players with a different mentality.
Simon Chege Ndiritu is a political observer and research analyst from Africa
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