Gachagua accuses Ruto of using UNGA trip to seal niobium deal in Kwale

The DCP leader claims Kenya’s mineral wealth is being traded away in New York — the government flatly denies it

By Anne Njeri

Democracy for the Citizens Party leader Rigathi Gachagua has accused President William Ruto of using his attendance at the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York as cover to finalise agreements handing Kenya’s niobium deposits in Kwale County to American firms, claims the government has denied.

Speaking to Kenyans in Kansas City during his ongoing tour of the United States, Gachagua alleged that niobium deposits at Mrima Hills in Kwale County — which he described as worth trillions of shillings — had been earmarked for foreign exploitation at the expense of local communities that he said continue to live in poverty despite sitting atop one of the world’s significant rare mineral reserves. He went further, alleging that Ruto himself stood to benefit directly from the arrangement. “His UNGA attendance is a smokescreen to wrap up the deal,” Gachagua told his audience.

The accusations are serious and carry considerable political charge in a country where natural resource governance has long been a source of public anxiety. Mrima Hills is already the subject of a petition at the High Court, adding a legal dimension to an issue that Gachagua has now thrust into the centre of the 2027 election debate.

The government moved quickly to rebut the claims. Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho told media two weeks ago that no licences had been granted for mining at Mrima Hills — a statement that directly contradicts Gachagua’s narrative and that the DCP leader did not address in his Kansas City remarks.

The exchange illustrates the difficulty of adjudicating competing claims on natural resources in Kenya’s politically charged environment. Mrima Hills is known to hold significant deposits of niobium, a mineral used in the production of high-strength steel alloys and increasingly prized in global technology supply chains. Any credible allegation of an opaque deal involving such reserves will find a receptive audience, particularly among diaspora communities attuned to Kenya’s historical struggles with resource governance.

Gachagua’s US tour has combined these economic accusations with a broader opposition consolidation message. He assured Kenyans in America that the opposition’s unity drive remained on course and that attempts by Ruto to divide the anti-government coalition had so far failed. With the general election now less than a year away, the DCP leader is using every international platform available to build the narrative that Kenya’s resources, institutions and democracy are at risk under the current administration — and that the opposition represents the corrective.

Whether the niobium allegations gain traction will depend partly on what Ruto brings home from New York, and partly on whether any documentation emerges to support or refute Gachagua’s claims. Until then, the government’s denial and the High Court petition sit on one side of the ledger, and one of Kenya’s most combative opposition figures on the other.

The minerals are in the ground. The politics are very much in the air.

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