Preparations in Top Gear Ahead of Groundbreaking for Dangote Oil Refinery in Lamu

By Hassan Wekesa - Editor

Kenya, 28 September 2026 - As Kenya prepares to host Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Lamu oil refinery project, worth $16 billion (KSh 2.1 trillion), on Wednesday, 30 September 2026, there is already tangible evidence on the ground that something big is happening.

Last week, a vessel docked at Lamu Port carrying construction materials, mainly metallic, clear evidence that the promise President William Ruto made is finally taking shape. The first caller vessel, MV Da Yang Bai He, arrived at Lamu Port in Kililana, Lamu West, on 26 September 2026, carrying 2,930.295 metric tonnes of project cargo for the construction of Dangote's East African Oil Refinery.

The groundbreaking ceremony will awaken Lamu further, especially after the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (LAPSSET) project opened a key transport corridor running from Lamu through South Sudan and Ethiopia.

Also last week, President Ruto and First Lady Rachel Ruto flew to Nigeria after attending the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) summit in New York, where they were photographed with Dangote ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony. While in Lagos, Nigeria on Friday, 25 September 2026, President Ruto toured the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki.

The unveiling of the Lamu project comes just five months after Kenya and Tanzania revived plans for an East African oil refinery, only for a disagreement to arise in May, when Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan publicly reprimanded President Ruto for disclosing that plans were underway to establish the refinery in Tanga without her knowledge.

Weeks later, the Dangote Group announced it had entered an agreement with Kenya to set up the oil refinery in Lamu.

Even though the project is now coming to fruition, locals are calling for adequate compensation and asking not to be taken in circles. During the construction of Lamu Port and the LAPSSET corridor, many residents displaced to make way for the projects complained that compensation took so long that some beneficiaries died before receiving it. Residents say they do not want a repeat of this.

The LAPSSET project mainly affected fisherfolk in Lamu, who staged protests across the archipelago on 9 February 2024 to pressure the government into disbursing their compensation into their bank accounts. The compensation package was Sh1.76 billion. In June 2024, the government honoured the deal and issued the payments, bringing joy to the fisherfolk.

The payments came a year after the Chairperson of the Lamu Beach Management Units (BMUs), Mohamed Somo, and the leader of the Lamu Island fisherfolk, Abubakar Twalib, signed to approve the Sh1.76 billion compensation package in March 2023. The signing of the deal between the fisherfolk and the government took place in Mokowe town, Lamu County.

Since then, the government, through the Kenya Ports Authority, has been involving Lamu residents in all matters pertaining to projects of this magnitude.

Ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony, President Ruto began a four-day coastal tour on Monday, during which he is expected to launch various projects across Taita Taveta, Kwale, Mombasa, Kilifi and Lamu, where one of Africa's major industrial ventures will be unveiled. President Ruto also issued 94,175 title deeds to residents of Kibaoni in Lunga Lunga, Kwale County, on Monday.

The Lamu refinery project has stirred heated debate across the country, with leaders calling for full disclosure of the shareholders behind the major investment. Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, party leader of the People's Party of Kenya, called on President Ruto to allow investors to do business in an environment free from political interference, speaking during a People's Tour in Nakuru County on 26 September 2026.

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"We are demanding full disclosure of the directors and shareholders behind Dangote's proposed Lamu oil refinery and petrochemical complex," Nyoro said.

He said Kenyans have a right to know who really owns a multimillion-dollar project before it breaks ground.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni also recently said his country had been buying fuel from Kenya at exorbitant prices before a Kenyan senator exposed underlying dirty deals involving middlemen in Kenya.

"The Republic of Uganda was buying petroleum products through middlemen in Kenya!" Museveni remarked, saying his former Energy and Mineral Development Minister, Irene Muloni, had disclosed figures to him that he will never forget.

"It was a government-to-government deal," said Muloni, now a presidential adviser, as she went on to expound further on the figures. Museveni interjected casually, stating that the deal was, in fact, purely government-to-middlemen.

Meanwhile, Kenya's ambitious oil drilling project in Turkana County received a major boost with the arrival of a drilling rig at a major port in Mombasa, ahead of its transportation to Turkana by road.

Local oil exploration and production firm Gulf Energy E&P BV SEZ confirmed that a MV Transit Sedanka carrying an integrated onshore drilling rig leased by the firm had docked at Kilindini Port in Mombasa after sailing from Duqm Port in Oman, marking significant progress in Kenya's first oil production journey, with drilling expected to begin on 1 November 2026.

The GW70 rig, valued at more than US$20 million was leased from Great Wall Drilling Company (GWDC) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a long-term lease arrangement, Gulf Energy E&P BV SEZ Chief Executive Officer Paul Limoh confirmed.