President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has blamed local petroleum marketers and international oil companies (IOCs) for protests surrounding his proposed $16 billion refinery in Lamu, Kenya.
Dangote spoke to the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme after he and Kenyan President William Ruto performed the groundbreaking ceremony for the refinery on Wednesday, despite a court order restricting construction activities over a land dispute. The ceremony followed the Nigerian visit of Kenyan President to Dangote Refinery during the week.
The refinery is planned to have a processing capacity of 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) when completed in 2030, making it one of the largest refining projects in Africa and the biggest proposed refinery in East Africa.
Dangote rejected claims that his company had acquired more land than required for the project, saying the company was using only the portion allocated to it by the Kenyan government.
“They said some people are demonstrating; demonstrating about what?” Dangote said, questioning the basis of the protests.
He described the demonstrations as “games played by local marketers and international players” and maintained that they would not derail the project or its planned completion date.
The project has, however, faced opposition from residents over land acquisition and compensation.
A group of 133 Lamu residents approached the Kenyan High Court seeking to stop construction activities on the disputed land. Following the legal action, excavation and other construction activities have been restricted pending the next court hearing scheduled for October 14.
Environmental concerns have also emerged around the development.
The Save Lamu campaign group has questioned the potential impact of the refinery on communities and the local environment. Walid Ali, co-founder of the group, told the BBC that residents wanted access to the project’s environmental impact assessment and details of proposed mitigation measures.
The dispute creates an additional challenge for a project that Dangote considers his largest proposed investment outside Nigeria.
Dangote said the refinery could create about 60,000 jobs at the peak of construction, with local communities expected to benefit from the development.
The project will also include a 1,000-megawatt power plant intended to supply Dangote’s operations and other industries that could establish businesses around the refinery.
The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by the leaders of Uganda, Ethiopia, Togo and Benin. According to Reuters, Dangote has offered regional governments a combined 30 percent stake in the refinery.
Dangote said the project would seek to replicate the experience of his 700,000-bpd refinery in Nigeria, which he cited as evidence that large-scale refining projects can be developed on the continent.
“Lekki proved that it can be done, Lamu must prove that it can be repeated,” he said.
If completed as planned, the Lamu refinery would become Kenya’s largest infrastructure project since independence, surpassing the $5.1 billion Standard Gauge Railway, while expanding Dangote’s refining footprint beyond Nigeria.
