TATA Chemicals will not take any action on the Magadi mining operations until the joint technical team completes its work, Managing Director Ramakrishnan Mukundan has said.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

While speaking on the sidelines of a presser on Wednesday, October 7, Mukundan stated that the committee that the government set up will look into their arguments, whose decision will help TATA Chemicals make the next move.

Mukundan stated that the group still holds a 30-year lease to Lake Magadi even in the presence of the mining licence disputes with the Kenyan government.

“We have the lease of the mine for another 30 years and will wait for the outcome of the committee before moving forward,” Mukundan stated.

📌 What You Need to Know

Tata representatives are part of the technical committee which is evaluating a raft of concerns, including citing an exploitative century-old framework and a severe lack of economic benefit to the country, raised by the government, leading to the licence suspension.

Be that as it may, he added that companies facing crises such as Tata ought to focus on strategic direction and be ready to make tough calls when the need arises.  In hindsight, the Tata Group, which is also in the fintech business, officially exited the highly competitive consumer mobile business on July 1, 2019. Mukundan reiterated that period in the family business, drawing parallels with the current licence brawl with the Kenyan government, stating that  “Where we cannot win, we exit.”

An audit by the Ministry of Mining had raised flags over missing royalty payments, environmental compliance, and the lack of a valid mining license.

While President Ruto ordered the end of operations and exit of the company, he later clarified that the mineral rights and contract would be advertised afresh through a competitive bidding process to allow multiple companies to apply.

“That TATA company … had that contract for 100 years. They have not built anything in Kajiado, they have not built any factory in Kajiado," Ruto said.

With operations frozen, local unions have raised massive alarms regarding the impending retrenchment and loss of regular wages for over 500 direct employees and thousands of indirect casual labourers who depend entirely on the Magadi plant ecosystem.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke