Kenya is the world’s fourth largest producer of natural soda ash – the common name for sodium carbonate – accounting for 1% of global production, according to the US Geological Survey.
It is mainly produced from natural brines or the mineral, trona, and is used in glass, chemicals, batteries and other industrial products.
Tata Chemicals is also one of Kenya’s largest mineral exporters and Africa’s biggest soda ash producer.
The company extracts trona from Lake Magadi, and processes it into soda ash, a key ingredient in glassmaking and also used in detergents, chemicals, water treatment, textiles and paper, according to the company website.
Its 2024 accounts reported about 245,000 tonnes of soda-ash sales and $78.7m in turnover.
The company employs about 500 people and says its community programmes benefit roughly 30,000 people around Magadi through water, healthcare, education, infrastructure and other support.
But Ruto said the company was not doing enough for Kenya and accused it of taking the country’s resources abroad.
“Tata Chemicals Magadi has had a contract for 100 years, and they have done nothing. I told them the other day to pack up and leave,” he said in Swahili.
“They have not built anything in Kajiado, they have not built any factory in Kajiado.”
