The pink soda ash waters of Lake Magadi (file). Photo: Lynne Tuller via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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Kalonzo faults Ruto over Lake Magadi mining switch.
Wiper Patriotic Front leader Kalonzo Musyoka has criticised President William Ruto for removing Tata Chemicals from Lake Magadi in Kajiado County without naming the company that will replace it.
Musyoka agreed that Tata had not operated responsibly during its years mining soda ash at the lake. But he questioned what he called the "opaque" way the government picked a new operator for the concession.
"Lake Magadi belongs to the people of Kenya, and most immediately to the people of Kajiado County. It was taken from them by an empire. It must not now be traded away by their own government in the dark," Musyoka said. He spoke on September 4 at the burial of former High Court judge Joseph Mbalu Mutava in Makueni County.
A century-old concession
Soda ash has been mined at Lake Magadi since 1904, when Kenya's colonial administration first negotiated the concession. Ruto ordered Tata Chemicals to leave after Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho suspended its operations in July over unresolved royalty payments and export reporting. Musyoka said Ruto risked wasting a chance to correct old injustices against the Maasai community if the switch was not handled openly.
This story was put together by K N N from material first published by Daily Nation.
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Wiper Patriotic Front leader Kalonzo Musyoka has criticised President William Ruto for removing Tata Chemicals from Lake Magadi in Kajiado County without naming the company that will replace it.
Musyoka agreed that Tata had not operated responsibly during its years mining soda ash at the lake. But he questioned what he called the “opaque” way the government picked a new operator for the concession.
“Lake Magadi belongs to the people of Kenya, and most immediately to the people of Kajiado County. It was taken from them by an empire. It must not now be traded away by their own government in the dark,” Musyoka said. He spoke on September 4 at the burial of former High Court judge Joseph Mbalu Mutava in Makueni County.
A century-old concession
Soda ash has been mined at Lake Magadi since 1904, when Kenya’s colonial administration first negotiated the concession. Ruto ordered Tata Chemicals to leave after Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho suspended its operations in July over unresolved royalty payments and export reporting. Musyoka said Ruto risked wasting a chance to correct old injustices against the Maasai community if the switch was not handled openly.
KNN Newsroom is the staff byline for stories written, rewritten and edited at the Kibra News Network desk. Where a story credits an outside outlet, the original source is linked at the foot of the piece.
