New Delhi: Accusing Tata Chemicals’ Kenyan arm of holding an industrial and mining permit without fulfilling conditions related to local employment or industrial development, William Ruto, the president of Kenya, on Thursday (September 3), said he has asked the Indian corporate to exit its interests in the country.He also said the company was sending profits to India rather than invest locally.“Tata has had the contract for 100 years. They have not built any factory or employed Kenyans. Recently, I told them to leave. These people should pack and leave. They take our resources and take to India and other countries. Are we other people’s slaves? I have already sent them out,” Ruto said, as per reports in Kenyan media.The Magadi unit run by Tata Chemicals is Africa’s largest soda ash manufacturer and a significant exporter of the raw material, with annual shipments exceeding 350,000 tonnes and going across the world. The company has had soda ash mining and export operations in Kenya for 115 years. It claims to employ 700 people at the Magadi plant.The possibility of Tata Chemical’s exit arose when Kenya’s Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs Cabinet Secretary, Hassan Ali Joho, issued an order on July 28, 2026, suspending all its mining operations and soda ash (sodium carbonate) exports at its plant located near Lake Magadi in Kenya’s Kajiado County.Tata Chemicals Magadi sought a court injunction to block the shutdown order from July, but it was denied by the Kenyan high court. However, the substantive petition is still under court jurisdiction and a hearing is scheduled for early October.Soda ash is a primary component in glass manufacturing. The raw material from which it is extracted is found on the surface of the Magadi region, unlike most soda ash sites, which are underground.Two different companies, presumably Kenyan, will be asked to take over the Magadi mining operations that Tata Chemicals has so far been involved in, a Reuters report said citing Ruto. The new companies will manufacture glass as well as chemicals, he reportedly said.It is unclear what the financial terms of Tata Chemical’s exit from Kenya, if it happens, will be. The Indian conglomerate has been involved in a longstanding dispute over royalties and other payment and extraction-related issues with the local as well as federal government of Kenya.The glass manufacturing unit that the president said he would set up once Tata Chemicals leaves is part of Kenya’s effort to industrialise while helping local populations secure employment, especially where mining has disrupted primary economic sources of livelihood such as fisheries or agriculture.As per a report in TUKO, a popular Kenyan web site, Ruto’s announcement drew sharp criticism from leaders allied to former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua’s Democracy for Citizens Party, who demanded an immediate reversal of the shutdown and accused Ruto of using the move to advance personal business interests.“The truth of the matter is there are huge deposits worth trillions of shillings of lithium metals underneath the Magadi area,” Nyandarua senator John Methu reportedly said, as per Citizen Digital. Kenyan media has pointed out there is no evidence yet to support the Lithium claim. The manufacturing facility in Kenya is one of four such operational sites Tata Chemicals owns globally, as per the company’s web site.Tata Chemicals is yet to issue a statement on the developments.