The proposed East African oil refinery in Lamu, Kenya, is set to dwarf its Nigerian counterpart with a processing capacity of 700,000 barrels per day compared to the Lagos facility’s 650,000 design capacity.
Speaking ahead of the 30 September groundbreaking ceremony, Kenyan President William Ruto confirmed his administration has allocated land and is eliminating administrative roadblocks to prevent operational delays. The complex will feature a 1,000-megawatt power generation facility, a 1 million-tonne polypropylene plant, and specialised processing infrastructure including a VDU, a coker, and heavier RFCC units tailored to regional crude requirements.
The development is expected to expand manufacturing, elevate regional engineering expertise, and supply petroleum products across East Africa. Five of eight regional heads of state invited to the ceremony have confirmed their attendance for the project, which President Ruto noted evolved from initial discussions to simply import fertiliser from Nigeria.
While touring the Lekki facility on Friday, President Ruto assured the project has total government backing, stating, “I just want to tell the Dangote family here that the government of Kenya is one hundred per cent behind your project, our project. We have already secured the land that is necessary for this. We are working on all the other enablers to make sure that we don’t spend time on doing administrative bureaucratic stuff. We spend time on doing what we must do so that at the earliest opportunity we can refine products out of Lamu in Kenya.”
He voiced confidence in blending Nigerian industrial scale with Kenyan benchmarks, remarking, “I think in Lamu we are not only going to have the largest, but we are also going to have the best. So we will combine the largest and best together in Lamu.” Cautioning the industrialist on regional expectations, he noted, “The only thing I want to tell you is that the standards are higher in Kenya. So you’d better be prepared.”
Ruto commended the enterprise required for such an undertaking, admitting, “I always knew Nigerians to be very brave people, very aggressive, and go-getters, but I didn’t anticipate that it was at this scale. I mean, to do what Aliko has done in this refinery, I think being brave is not enough. I think you have to be reckless. It’s out of this world.” He recalled the origin of the agreement, stating, “In April, I had a conversation with my brother Aliko, and the subject of a refinery for our region came up. And I am very happy that on the 30th of September, we will be breaking ground for the East African oil refinery in Lamu. And we are finally putting our money where our mouth is.”
Commenting on his visit following the UN General Assembly, he added, “I was coming from UNGA, but Dangote asked me to make a stopover, and now I can say without fear of any contradiction that this visit was worth every minute of the time I have spent here. Last year, after consultation with Dangote, I asked my team to come and visit this refinery. Initially, we were thinking of how we can import fertiliser from here.”
Dangote explained that the site visit was designed to show the Kenyan leadership the technical and operational scope of the Lekki complex prior to starting construction in Lamu. Dangote outlined how the project leverages past construction experience while adapting to specific local requirements: “We will have some of the equipment that we have here, maybe like the RFCC, will be much heavier. And then you also have the coker, which we don’t have here, because of the type of crude that we have. And we also have VDU, which we also don’t have here. So, this will give you a sense of an idea of what we are going to have in Kenya. But Kenya will be a little bit bigger than what you are going to see.”
Ruto noted that seeing the site in person provided a perspective that previous briefings could not match, praising Dangote’s direct grasp of operational details: “You know, as we went through the whole process, one thing struck me: the detail with which Aliko Dangote, from his position, has knowledge of the plant.”
He added: “Aliko asked me to invite colleagues because this is not a Kenyan refinery; it’s going to be a regional refinery. So I have invited eight colleagues from the region, and five have already confirmed attendance,” adding, “We’re not looking at this as just a refinery, as has been said here by the presentation that we’ve had. We’re looking at a refinery that is also going to elevate our industrial scale.”