President William Ruto has put billionaire Aliko Dangote on notice that Kenyans will be watching the clock after the investor gave a 40-month timeline for completion of the Sh2 trillion Lamu oil refinery.
Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony in Mokowe, Lamu County, on Wednesday, Ruto said Kenyans have a habit of holding leaders and investors to timelines once they are announced publicly.
“We have heard you, Aliko Dangote, that you have said we will be back here in 40 months to come and open this refinery. Kenyans are very good at keeping data,” Ruto said.
“I want to warn you, they normally take me to task every time I give them a time frame,” he added.
Dangote had announced the 40-month target during the ceremony, setting the clock for the completion and opening of the refinery.
Ruto said the project had now moved from an idea to a major undertaking whose success would depend on actual delivery.
“A groundbreaking is a promise. A refinery is a promise kept,” the President said, adding that financing, infrastructure, workforce training, crude supply and securing markets would determine whether the project meets its targets.
The President said the figures announced for the refinery should not be treated as automatic achievements, but as targets that must be pursued with discipline.
The planned complex is valued at about $16 billion, equivalent to roughly Sh2 trillion, and is designed to process up to 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
It is also expected to generate up to 1,000 megawatts of electricity, part of which could eventually serve areas beyond the refinery.
The project is expected to create about 60,000 direct and indirect jobs, with Ruto saying wages could reach more than Sh2 billion a month during the four-year construction period.
Ruto said the government would also expect clear recruitment and training programmes to ensure young people from Lamu, neighbouring counties and other parts of Kenya benefit from the project.
Technical and vocational institutions and universities will be expected to prepare welders, technicians, engineers and managers needed by the refinery, he said.
The President’s warning comes as the government positions the refinery as a major investment in Kenya’s energy security and industrialisation.
He said the project would also anchor wider economic activity around Lamu Port and the LAPSSET Corridor, creating opportunities for transporters, contractors, engineers, manufacturers and other service providers.
“For too long, too many of our ambitions waited for one source of money: the public purse,” Ruto said, arguing that Kenya must increasingly use private capital to finance large infrastructure and industrial projects.
For Dangote, however, the immediate task is now to turn Wednesday’s groundbreaking into a completed refinery within the promised timeline.
And as Ruto reminded him, Kenyans will be keeping the record.
