- Kajiado wants Ksh13 billion in unpaid land rates.
- Lenku wants unused company land returned to residents.
- County seeks fairer community benefits from Tata Chemicals.
Kajiado County has demanded that Tata Chemicals Magadi Limited pay Ksh13 billion in unpaid land rates before resuming operations at Lake Magadi.
Speaking to a local television station on September 14, Kajiado Governor Joseph Ole Lenku described the company’s decades-long presence in Magadi as a case of historical land injustice. He said the county has repeatedly failed to collect land rates from the firm, calling it the only company in the country that does not remit such payments. As a result, he noted, the outstanding bill has climbed to Ksh13 billion.
Lenku insisted that the county will not allow the company to reopen until the debt is cleared. He framed the standoff as a long-overdue reckoning for a firm that has operated in the region for close to a century.
Governor wants grazing land returned
Beyond the unpaid rates, the governor also raised concerns over how much land the company controls. According to Lenku, Tata Chemicals holds more than 200,000 acres in Magadi, yet its actual salt-processing operations occupy only around 11,000 acres of that land.
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He argued that the vast, unused portion has effectively locked pastoralist communities out of grazing grounds they depend on. For that reason, Lenku wants the surplus acreage handed back to residents rather than left idle under the company’s control.
County pushes for fairer benefit sharing
The governor further called for the establishment of clearer, fairer terms for any firm operating in Magadi going forward. This, he said, should include structured community benefit-sharing arrangements, something locals have long felt has been missing from the company’s decades of operation in the area.
The county’s demands follow a separate move by national government officials to address the dispute. Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho recently set up a high-level technical committee tasked with resolving compliance concerns at Tata Chemicals Magadi, after the company suspended operations at Lake Magadi.
By Benedict Aoya
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