Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote and Kenya’s President William Ruto have broken ground on a $16bn (£12bn) oil refinery in Lamu, on Kenya’s northern coast.
Upon completion, the refinery is expected to process 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day, making it East Africa’s largest industrial project by capacity.
Ahead of the launch, some local residents took to the streets to demand more compensation for land used for the refinery.
Speaking to the BBC, Dangote, Africa’s richest man, dismissed the protests as games played by local marketers and international players, insisting the refinery would go ahead and would be ready by 2030 as planned.
The ground-breaking was also attended by the leaders of Uganda, Ethiopia, Togo and Benin.
Dangote has offered regional governments a combined 30% stake in the refinery, according to Reuters news agency.
“This is Africa coming together to build Africa. Today we are not simply breaking ground for a refinery, we’re breaking ground for a new chapter in Africa’s industrial journey to a brighter future,” Dangote said as he launched the project.
“Lekki [his Nigerian refinery] proved that it can be done, Lamu must prove that it can be repeated.”
President Ruto made a similar point, saying: “It is a declaration that Africa has entered a new age in which we will increasingly finance, build, process and add value here at home.”
The refinery is set to become the only one in East Africa and is Kenya’s largest infrastructure project since independence, surpassing the $5.1bn (£3.9bn) Standard Gauge Railway.
In his interview with the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme, Dangote disputed the compensation claims and said the company took only the portion of land it needed from what the government made available.
“To come and say some people are demonstrating, demonstrating about what? Have you ever seen people demonstrating against themselves in terms of development?” he asked, indicating he was not fazed by the protests.
Walid Ali, the co-founder of the Save Lamu campaign group, told the BBC that they are concerned about the environmental impact the project could have on the local community.
“We are asking for the findings from the environmental impact assessment so that we can see what mitigation measures are being proposed,” Ali said.
“This is not the first project where we have seen environmental concerns being overlooked,” he added.
A group of 133 Lamu residents has approached Kenya’s High Court in a bid to stop the construction work.
