Kenya should turn Lake Magadi’s soda ash deposits into a manufacturing engine by attracting glass, chemical and other industries to process the mineral locally, Principal Secretary for Industrialisation Juma Mukhwana has said.
Mukhwana said the country should move away from exporting soda ash for processing in other countries, arguing that Kenya loses factories, jobs, technology and wealth when its raw materials are turned into finished products abroad.
“Other countries have then used our soda ash to manufacture glass, detergents, chemicals and numerous industrial products - creating factories, jobs, technology and wealth. Then, in some instances, Africa buys the finished products back. That model must end,” he said.
His remarks come as the government seeks to use President William Ruto’s intervention at Magadi to attract investors into glass and chemical manufacturing, potentially making the area a major industrial centre rather than leaving it mainly as a mineral extraction site.
Lake Magadi, in Kajiado County, has supplied natural soda ash for more than a century. Tata Chemicals Magadi, which began operations at the site in 1911, extracts trona from the lake, processes it into soda ash and moves much of the output by rail to the Port of Mombasa for export.
Kenya produced 264,921 tonnes of natural soda ash in 2024, ranking fourth globally, according to US Geological Survey data. About 249,000 tonnes were exported, with Thailand taking 32 per cent, India 28 per cent, while Tanzania and Uganda each accounted for 10 per cent.
Mukhwana said the production and export figures point to an opportunity that goes beyond mining and mineral sales.
“Soda ash is not an ordinary mineral. It is an industrial building block. It is a critical input in glass manufacturing and is also used in detergents, chemicals and numerous industrial processes.”
He said Magadi could support a wider industrial cluster bringing together glass manufacturers, chemical firms, laboratories, engineering companies, logistics providers and small businesses.
“Instead of thinking of Magadi merely as a mining operation, we should begin thinking of it as the nucleus of a major Kenyan chemical and glass manufacturing ecosystem.”
The proposal comes as the government seeks to raise the contribution of manufacturing to the economy. Manufacturing accounted for 7.3 per cent of GDP in 2024, while its real value added grew by 2.8 per cent, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
Growth slowed further in 2025, with real manufacturing gross value added expanding by 2 per cent, according to the 2026 Economic Survey.
Mukhwana also tied the push for local processing to Kenya’s growing trade relationship with India, saying the two countries should move towards deeper industrial cooperation and investment.
Kenya and India recorded total bilateral trade of Sh556.89 billion in 2025/26, a 24.91 per cent increase from Sh445.05 billion recorded in the previous financial year, according to India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Mukhwana said Kenya was not seeking to prevent Indian companies from selling goods in the country, but wanted more of those products to be made locally.
“Kenya does not seek to stop Indian companies from selling products to our market. Quite the opposite. We want Indian companies to succeed in Kenya. But increasingly, we should be asking them to make in Kenya what they sell in Kenya and Africa,” he said.
He pointed to pharmaceuticals, automotive components, electronics, textiles, chemicals and machinery as areas where Indian manufacturers could set up production facilities in Kenya.
Mukhwana also proposed a modern Kenya-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, saying it could help increase Kenyan exports, deal with tariff and non-tariff barriers, encourage technology transfer and deepen industrial cooperation between the two countries.
He said Kenya should also use its position within the African Continental Free Trade Area to attract manufacturers looking for access to the wider African market.
The PS argued that the Magadi plan should fit into a wider effort to change Africa’s role from a supplier of raw materials into a continent that processes its resources and produces finished goods.
“President Ruto’s stand at Magadi should therefore become part of a broader African industrial doctrine: No strategic raw material should leave Africa without first asking whether we can competitively transform it here.”
Tata Chemicals has already invested in upgrading its Magadi operations. In July 2025, the company commissioned a 10-tonnes-per-hour electric calciner and a 5MW solar photovoltaic plant as part of measures to reduce the carbon intensity of soda ash production.
Mukhwana said Kenya’s industrial growth would depend on linking its natural resources to factories, technology, infrastructure, skills, investment and markets.
“Kenya must manufacture. Africa must manufacture. Our resources must build our industries, our industries must create our jobs, and our jobs must create our prosperity,” he concluded.