Kenyan President William Ruto on Thursday said that he has ordered India’s Tata Chemicals to stop operations in the country, saying that its presence had failed to benefit his country, the BBC reported.Ruto said that the Indian company had been exporting soda ash instead of processing the mineral locally to produce glass and chemicals. Soda ash, or sodium carbonate, is a chemical that is widely used across industries, especially in glass production.The Kenyan president made the remarks during a visit to Magadi in Kajiado county, where Tata Chemicals operates a soda ash plant. He said that the company had held a contract for about 100 years but had done little to develop local industries.“I told them the other day to pack up and leave,” BBC quoted Ruto as saying in Swahili. “They have not built anything in Kajiado, they have not built any factory in Kajiado.”Tata Chemicals said that it respected the authority of the Kenyan government and remained committed to “constructive engagement through the appropriate legal and regulatory channels to resolve the outstanding matters”, Reuters reported.The company added that its "priority continues to be the well-being of our employees, the Magadi community, ⁠our ​stakeholders in Kenya and the continued economic ​development of Kenya". It added that it has provided a “comprehensive” reply to the matters raised by the Kenyan government.Tata Chemicals Magadi employs around 500 persons and claims its community programmes benefit about 30,000 persons around Magadi through water, healthcare, education, infrastructure and other support, BBC reported.However, Ruto said that the company was not doing enough for Kenya and accused it of taking the country's resources abroad. He added that his government would bring in two new companies to take over the operations and process the mineral locally.Tata Chemicals is one of Kenya’s largest mineral exporters and Africa’s biggest soda ash producer. The company exports more than 3.5 lakh tonnes of soda ash annually to markets including India, Southeast Asia, West Asia and other parts of Africa.Kenya is the world's fourth largest producer of natural soda ash accounting for 1% of global production, according to the United States Geological Survey.In July, the Kenyan government had ordered Tata Chemicals to suspend operations at the Magadi soda factory, Reuters reported.Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.