Geostrategic Daily

RFI Afrique · 16 September 2026

Why Kenya wants to ban exports of unprocessed minerals

Kenya plans to ban exports of raw minerals to develop local processing and capture more value. The ban would notably cover gold, and President William Ruto has announced three gold refineries in Kakamega and around Nairobi.

Why it matters: This is an instance of resource nationalism as African governments seek to control natural resources and capture downstream value.

critical minerals · sanctions export controls · supply chain risk

Record

Source
RFI Afrique (tier 1)
Published
16 September 2026
Link
http://www.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts/chronique-des-mati%C3%A8res-premi%C3%A8res/20260916-pourquoi-le-kenya-souhaite-interdire-les-exportations-de-minerais-non-transform%C3%A9s
Content depth
full
Regions
sub-saharan-africa
Subregions
east-africa-horn
Actors
Kenya, William Ruto, Central Bank of Kenya
Edition
2026-09-17

Grounding

Verbatim spans from the source text that support the summary above.

Nairobi a pour projet d'interdire ses exportations de minerais bruts pour développer leur transformation sur place et en tirer davantage de valeur.
L'interdiction concernerait notamment l'or
le président kenyan, William Ruto, a annoncé l'implantation de trois raffineries d’or dans la région de Kakamega et aux alentours de Nairobi