'Didn't benefit country': Kenya ousts Tata Chemicals
Kenyan President William Ruto has ordered Tata Chemicals to cease operations, citing a failure to provide local economic benefits such as domestic manufacturing. The government plans to transition mining rights to new investors who commit to building local glass and chemical processing facilities.
Why it matters
The move reflects a growing trend of resource nationalism in developing economies seeking to move up the value chain by mandating local processing over raw material exports.
NAIROBI: Kenya's President William Ruto said on Thursday he had ordered Tata Chemicals to stop its operations as its presence had failed to benefit the country.Fresh investors would take over its mining rights for minerals that are processed into soda ash.Ruto said he asked a unit of the Mumbai-based company "to pack and go" because it has been exporting soda ash rather than using it at local facilities to make glass and chemicals. "That Tata company... had that contract for 100 years yet it has not built anything in Kajiado," Ruto said of the county that's home to Lake Magadi, from which the firm has extracted minerals to make soda ash for two decades. "They take our resource to India and other places."Kenya has produced the resource since 1911 and Tata bought the operation from Brunner Mond Ltd in 2005.
Also covering this story
4 other newsrooms covered this event. We read each version separately.
Kenya's President orders Tata Chemicals to end operations in the country
Kenya Orders Tata Chemicals To Stop Operations In Country
Kenya’s President Orders Tata Chemicals to End Operations in the Country
Tata Chemicals Operations Halted
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