In 1902, European financiers from London and South Africa registered a company called the East Africa Syndicate (EAS) with the intention of acquiring mining rights in British East Africa. In a letter to the Foreign Office, the company requested exclusive rights to prospect for gold and other minerals on an unspecified 500 square miles (320,000 acres). The proposal also stated that an agreement would be reached with representative African chiefs, whose wishes would be carefully considered. This became the first land application in British East Africa approved by the Foreign Office.
The EAS proceeded to conduct an exploratory expedition in British East Africa in search of minerals. After scouring the region for 18 months, a trip to the Southern Rift led them to Magadi where they found a lake brimming with soda ash deposits. Captivated by the lake’s seemingly inexhaustible mineral deposits, the EAS chose to lease the parcel of land surrounding Lake Magadi.
The Anglo-Maasai Land Treaty of 1904
On 9th August 1904, the colonial administration granted the EAS a 20-year lease on 89 square miles (approximately 60,000 acres) within and around Lake Magadi. The next day, Maasai leaders and Sir Donald William Stewart, the Commissioner of the East Africa Protectorate, signed a treaty. This treaty allowed for the eviction of the Maa people from certain sections of the Rift Valley, including Magadi, and into two reserves. In fact, the syndicate gained full and uninterrupted rights to mine all mineral deposits in Magadi. It is alleged that the Maasai leaders initially agreed to this land concession provided there was a pledge that the remainder of their Rift Valley pastures be left to them. This pledge was later broken.
Construction of the Magadi Railway Link
After leasing the land, the EAS began to consider the infrastructure needed to export soda ash. A transport link connecting this remote area to the Mombasa port was a crucial first step. Therefore, in 1906, the EAS established a subsidiary company called the East Africa Soda and Railway Company, tasked with building a railway link from Magadi to the Uganda Railway. With very little operational capital, this subsidiary attempted but failed to secure funding for this project from the colonial government and dissolved in 1910.
Strapped for cash, the EAS approached a London-based merchant, Marcus Samuel, for a loan. Rather than a loan, Samuel – the founder of Shell Transport and Trading Company – invested capital into a new subsidiary named the Magadi Soda Company of Shell House. The EAS surrendered its initial lease to the subsidiary.
The Anglo-Maasai Land Treaty of 1911
In April 1911, Maasai elders entered a second agreement that further dispossessed the community of the land that became The White Highlands owing to its use for European settlement. This second eviction forced the Maasai to relocate to a Southern Reserve that bordered German East Africa. The 1911 agreement also contained a clause that granted the company permission to draw water from the Ewaso Nyiro River for the construction of the railway and all else necessary for the mining efforts. Six months after signing the new lease agreement, the company began building a 91-mile rail link to the Uganda Railway, with the connecting point being Konza Station.
Construction of the Magadi railway moved at a snail’s pace due to delays brought about by World War I. After its completion in 1915, the military commandeered it for the remainder of the war since soda ash production had ceased during this period. By the end of the war in 1918, the financial cost of constructing the railway link, coupled with reports of gross financial mismanagement, left the company drained of its capital. The company went under in 1924, with operations in Magadi saved by a buy-out from Brunner Mond, an Anglo-German company. A new 99-year lease agreement passed to the newly formed Magadi Soda Company in November of that year.
Post-War Growth
In 1926, Brunner Mond merged with three other companies to form the industrial giant, Imperial Chemical Industries. As a result, the Magadi Soda Company effectively became an offshoot of one of the world’s largest industrial combines. Kenya is one of the world’s leading soda ash exporters, a feat made possible by the construction of the Magadi Line.
