Former United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi has alleged that President William Ruto is blackmailing Tata Chemicals in a supposed plot to secure campaign funds ahead of the 2027 General Election.
Speaking during an interview on Citizen TV’s JKLive, Kituyi stated that Ruto’s directive for Tata Chemicals Magadi to leave Kenya is not a genuine expulsion but rather a pressure tactic designed to force the corporation back to the negotiating table.
“Ruto is not expelling Tata; Ruto is blackmailing a major international corporation because he wants easy money. He will get his Joho backstage to go, and we will renegotiate and show Tata that if you do not accept what we are offering, we are capable of this radical decision to throw you out of here,” he stated.
Kituyi also challenged claims regarding the duration of the company’s operations in Kajiado, clarifying that Tata Chemicals itself has not operated in Magadi for a century. He explained that the Indian multinational acquired the assets of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) roughly a decade ago.
“Tata has not been here for 100 years. About 10 years ago, Tata bought the interest of Imperial Chemical Industries, a company that had been a conglomerate. But when it was separating, the original company, which had come to Magadi more than 100 years ago sold its interests to Tata,” Kituyi stated.
While acknowledging that the original colonial-era agreement governing soda ash mining in Magadi favored the investor, Kituyi noted that previous administrations missed key opportunities to revise the terms.
“It’s true that the colonial contract under which ICI set up soda ash mining in Magadi may not be the best. The Kenyan government had an opportunity at independence to renegotiate this contract, it did not,” Kituyi stated.
He argued that the current administration should seek structured renegotiations aimed at increasing local value addition rather than making sudden threats of eviction.
“You can watch Tata and say.. under the current circumstances, we want to look at your contract afresh. We don’t think you can forever be the source of raw materials, extraction, and value addition in India. Let us agree on how much value addition can be done in Kenya,” Kituyi stated.
“That’s how civilized nations deal with matters of investors. Not arbitrary wake up overnight and you announce, ‘you are going.’ This is blackmail. These are attempts to get campaign money.”
Kituyi’s statements follow President Ruto’s directive ordering Tata Chemicals Magadi to exit Kenya. The president accused the company of holding an extraction license for nearly a century without creating adequate job opportunities or developing local industrial processing capacity in Kajiado.
Ruto maintained that the government will seek alternative investors willing to construct local glass and chemical manufacturing facilities to boost employment and maximize national benefits from Kenya’s mineral wealth.
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