Company destroys county property over Ksh17B debt and issues fresh orders

about_usTata Chemicals Magadi, Africa’s largest soda ash manufacturer and one of Kenya’s leading exporters is embroiled in a Sh17 billion land rates dispute with Kajiado county.On Saturday the company took the conflict a notch higher when it destroyed property belonging to Kajiado County Government.

A bitter dispute has erupted between Kajiado County Government and a Lake Magadi investor over billions of shillings in defaulted land rates.
Tata Chemicals Ltd, formerly Magadi Soda, has said it is incapable of paying land rates on the 224,000 acres of land they use to exploit soda ash.

The county government is demanding Sh17 billion as accrued land rate arrears since 2013 with the soda ash investor saying it can only wind up the venture.Image result for titus naikuni

In a blow-by-blow memorandum to Governor Joseph Ole Lenku, signed by executive director Harish Nair, the investor says they can only afford to pay Sh150 per acre and not the Sh14,000 per acre as stipulated in the Finance Act.

This amount would translate to Sh33 million a year against the county government’s demand of Sh3.1 billion a year.

Tata Chemicals says it should be exempted from the Finance Act’s land rate charges because, in any case, they have spent Sh276 million (or 3.5 per cent of their revenue) on corporate social responsibilities in the 2017/2018 financial year.

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With the ongoing confrontation, Tata Chemicals issued fresh orders to Magadi MCA Joseph Masiaya and Ward Administrator Julius Rikanka to vacate their company houses immediately.

The firm is contesting the land rates dating back to 2013.

Rikanka said he is aware of the destruction at the construction site.

“It is true there was demolition. The county government had begun the foundation for my office and those of enforcement officers, but we woke up to a total mess,” he said.

Former Nominated MCA Charles Lekanet said Tata Chemicals showed no regard for the people of Magadi who gave them land.

Kajiado Finance executive Michael Semera said on Saturday they had not received any court injunction.

He said the county government was building offices to serve the vast Magadi Ward that extends to the boundary of Narok.

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“We are not constructing a factory in Magadi but we are taking our services to the people,” Semera said.

On January 31, Justice Reuben Nyakundi issued the injunction after Tata Chemical’s board member Naikuni swore an affidavit seeking to deter the county government from interfering with its operation.

Petition No 2 of 2019 listed the county government as the first respondent, the Attorney General as the second respondent and the Inspector General of Police as the third respondent.

Justice Nyakundi certified the application as urgent and will be heard ex-parte in the first instance.

He issued a conservatory order of injunction stopping the county government from trespassing, entering, closing, locking, blocking or interfering with the petitioner’s premises pending full hearing and determination of the petition.

The court also issued another temporary injunction restraining the county from collecting and enforcing its demand for alleged arrears of land rates and royalties from 2013 to 2018 pending a full hearing.

The hearing of the petition case is scheduled for February 5.

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