Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has started building a $16 billion oil refinery at Lamu on Kenya’s northern coast, but the project already faces a second legal challenge. The Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK) has filed a petition claiming that important details of the deal have not been made public.
Dangote and Kenyan President William Ruto broke ground on the site on September 30. The Nigerian billionaire plans to replicate his group’s 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Nigeria, with the aim of lowering East Africa’s fuel costs and saving the hard currency the region spends on imported refined products. Completion is scheduled for 2030. Engineers India Limited has a $450 million project engineering contract, and Honeywell will provide technology support. Ruto called the plant the largest foreign direct investment in Kenya’s history and said it would raise the country’s annual GDP by 12%.
Dangote has offered regional governments a combined 30% stake, and shares in the refinery are eventually due to be listed on the Nairobi bourse. Leaders from Ethiopia, Uganda, Benin and Togo joined the ceremony at Lamu port, where Dangote said the refinery would make a region stretching from Ethiopia to Mozambique self-sufficient in fuel by replacing imports.
COFEK’s petition, lodged with the Public Private Partnerships Petition Committee, asks for any approvals that did not comply with the rules to be set aside and reconsidered. The group, whose secretary general Stephen Mutoro announced the filing on X, also wants the government to disclose its plan to take a stake in the refinery, including the acquisition vehicle, share class and payment terms, along with evidence of public participation. A Dangote Group spokesperson declined to comment.
The petition follows a lawsuit from more than 130 Lamu residents who say the land where the plant is being built is their ancestral heritage. A hearing in that case is due on October 14. Dangote brushed off the land claim at the launch and said he was confident the refinery would go ahead. “Anybody who wants to cause trouble, we are ready,” he said.
