Kenya Refinery: Ruto Assures Dangote Of Protection Against Extortion

Kenyan President William Ruto has assured president of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, that nobody would be allowed to extort or blackmail him in the course of constructing the proposed $16 billion East African oil refinery in Kenya.

Ruto gave the assurance on Tuesday during the official flag-off of construction of the refinery in Lamu County, amid a legal dispute over the project involving some residents and farmers in the area.

Addressing Dangote at the ceremony, the Kenyan president acknowledged that the Nigerian businessman had previously encountered challenges in the country but pledged government support for the investment.

“I want to assure you, my good brother Aliko, I know you have had a different experience before in Kenya. I want to assure you, nobody is going to extort from you anything,” Ruto said.

“There will be nobody who will be given anything for free because they have blackmailed the system.”

The president’s remarks came after Dangote disclosed that a Kenyan court order had temporarily affected activities at the proposed refinery site.

LEADERSHIP reported on Monday that Dangote had described the court action as “normal for us in Africa”, saying his group was prepared to confront attempts to frustrate its investments.

Dangote, while reacting to the order by the Malindi Environment and Land Court, said he was not surprised by the development, recalling similar experiences involving his investments in other African countries.

“Yesterday as I was landing here at night, you know, because I always try to switch off my Wi-Fi on my plane, you know, so that I’ll be able to rest. I don’t want to be disturbed. But immediately when I opened my phone, they said, oh yeah, you know, by Bloomberg,” Dangote said.

“I’m sure some of you must have seen it. One court has given an order that we shouldn’t do any construction. I said, no, no, this is normal for us in Africa, you know.

“We don’t care. We don’t care. In fact, this is even small.”

Dangote recalled that his group had faced a similar challenge in Senegal, where, according to him, one of its factories was shut for about a year before the company pursued the matter through the courts.

“In Senegal, it’s not even court. We went, they stopped even our factory for one year. We went up to the Supreme Court to get a judgement,” he said.

“So anybody who wants to cause trouble, we are ready for them.”

The Dangote Group chairman also expressed confidence that the company knew those behind what he described as attempts to frustrate its investments.

“No, no, brother, don’t worry. We know who are the people doing all these things, so we’ll face them,” he said.

LEADERSHIP also reported that the proposed facility is planned as a 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Lamu County and is expected to form a major part of Dangote’s expansion of its energy and petrochemical investments across Africa.

Meanwhile Dangote said on Tuesday that the project which is estimated to cost about $16 billion and would be completed and commissioned within 40 months.

“Mr. President and our other respected presidents, my brother Prime Minister Abiy, I want to assure you we will come back here and commission this refinery in 40 months from today,” he said.