Lamu row clouds Sh2.2 trillion refinery project

The Sh2.2 trillion East African Oil Refinery project has run into land disputes that have long frustrated investments around the Lamu Port South Sudan-Ethiopia (LAPSSET) corridor project, and other parts of the coast region.

Land disputes in Lamu and the coast stem from historical land tenure issues, a contested titling system, absentee landlords and squatters’ claims of ownership based on long-term occupation.

Residents of Chandavai are demanding compensation before the groundbreaking of the project and accuse the government of compensating absentee title holders rather than those who live on the land.

Like in most cases, the indigenous, commonly referred to as squatters, lack land ownership documents, and they point to ancestral graves and old trees as proof of land ownership.

Chandavai residents claim registered titles held by these absentee landowners were obtained fraudulently and that the National Land Commission NLC compensated the wrong people.

Yesterday, President William Ruto vowed to push ahead with today’s planned groundbreaking of the Sh2.2 trillion East African Oil Refinery in Lamu despite a court order stopping the exercise.

Speaking in Kilifi County, Ruto accused people “who have been preaching shareholding” of trying to sabotage the project he said would unlock economic opportunities for the Coast.

“Those who have been preaching shareholdings want to sabotage this project like they did when Dangote wanted to set up a cement factory in Lamu. We will not allow them,” said Ruto.

The president issued a stern warning to individuals he accused of frustrating investors seeking opportunities in Kenya by making unreasonable demands and imposing selfish conditions.

He said such actions risk driving away capital and slowing the country’s economic transformation.

President Ruto made it clear that the government will not allow profiteers to derail the refinery project.

He described the Sh2 trillion project as an economic game-changer for Kenya and the wider region.

“They cannot stop this project. I will make sure it succeeds,” he asserted.

Ruto is expected to host the heads of state of Ethiopia and South Sudan or their representatives. The three nations are directly linked and partnering in the LAPSSET Corridor Programme. 

Lands Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome has affirmed President Ruto’s hardline stance on the proposed refinery, saying nothing or no one can obstruct its construction.

“No one can stop the President from constructing the refinery on land belonging to Kenyans,” she said.

“All the land belongs to the State. The State can actually acquire your property compulsorily,” Wahome said in Kilifi on Tuesday during the issuance of title deeds.

She insisted that the Government had set aside adequate land for the project, with an additional portion that she said President Ruto would speak about during the groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday.

“By the grace of God, on the directive of the President, we as the Settlement Fund saw that we had 7,000 acres where the refinery will be. So the land for the project is there and also there is an additional over 2,000 acres of government land,” she said.

She questioned why some individuals were opposed to a project that she said would benefit Kenyans.

“Why are people jealous when we are doing projects for Kenyans, and yet all these things belong to Kenyans?” she said.

The refinery, projected to process up to 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day, is an investment by the Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote in partnership with the Kenyan government.

Although details of the deal signed between Kenya and Dangote remain scarce, sources say Dangote would be the major shareholder with 70 per cent, with the government retaining 30 per cent.

However, like past planned mega investments in Lamu, the refinery has run into land disputes stemming from fears of past historical land injustices and other local politics in Lamu County.

Yesterday, a section of residents and activists staged a protest demanding that the President lift the dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed 12 years ago before he launched the project.

Other protestors demanded compensation from the squatters of Chandavai, as the state had compulsorily acquired the land for the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor project.

The refinery is one of the major components of the LAPSSET, and the land was compulsorily acquired through a gazette notice issued under Section 110 of the Land Act in 2012.

The Chandavai disputed land, LR No. 13061 (Hindi/Manda Magogoni area), is one of the parcels of land that were compulsorily acquired by the government for the LAPSSET Corridor project.

The components of the multi-trillion LAPSSET project, launched by the late President Mwai Kibaki, comprise a massive multi-modal transport, industrial, and urban hub.

They include a port whose three of the planned 32 deep-water berths have been completed, a resort city, an oil refinery and transport infrastructure linking Lamu-Isiolo-Juba-Addis Ababa.

Others include an international airport and a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) with industrial parks, logistics zones, and other support infrastructure, including a water desalination plant and power.

Under compulsory acquisition, the government acquires land for public projects, subject to legal procedures, including consideration of compensation claims by affected parties.

However, in Lamu, compensation for those affected by the LAPSSET project has faced extensive delays, legal disputes, and partial payouts over the years.

In 2015, the government released Sh1.31 billion for the compensation of landowners in Lamu, but many families and displaced residents say they are yet to receive full payment.

The NLC has argued in the past that the so-called indigenous occupants lacked documents to prove land ownership. In other cases, it said there were multiple claims of the same parcels.

“The land issues are a national problem, but in the Coast they are chronic. It can take up to 10 years to solve a case of historical land injustices in the Coast,” said NLC chairman, Abdullahi Sagaf Alawi, who declined to comment about the Dangote issue because it is in court.

In 2024, the dispute arose after officers from the LAPSSET implementing agencies stormed the land with bulldozers and allegedly destroyed crops, houses and other structures in Chandavai.

The residents have filed a case to stop the groundbreaking ceremony until they are compensated.

The land dispute took a new turn yesterday after one of the alleged victims, Anna Trezbinski, was arrested and held at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters over the Lamu property.

Trezbinski is facing charges of obtaining registration of land by false pretences contrary to Section 320 of the Penal Code and making a false document contrary to Section 347 of the Penal Code.

Her mother, Dodo Cunningham, told the Standard that the charges were intended to intimidate her daughter and facilitate the grabbing of the disputed property.

“It’s unbelievable what this country is going through. This gangsterism,” Cunningham said.

“Now that Dangote is coming, they all think they can grab land and sell it for five to ten times the price,” she alleged.

The arrest comes months after the Environment and Land Court in Malindi cancelled a title to land on Manda Island after finding that it had been issued irregularly and overlapped with two parcels belonging to Takaungu Investments Limited, a company owned by Ann Sophie Trzebinski Lemarti.

Other mega projects that have faced similar challenges in Lamu include the Sh200 billion coal project by Amu Power Company, a consortium of Centum Investment Group, Gulf Energy, and China Huadian.

In June 2019, Kenya's National Environment Tribunal (NET) revoked Amu Power's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) licence due to inadequate public participation.

The community had challenged the project over a lack of public participation and flawed environmental assessment.

A Sh21 billion wind power project by Kenya's Kenwind Holdings Limited and Belgium’s Elicio NV, formerly Electrawinds, in the Bahari area in Lamu was also nullified following land disputes.

bsanga@standardmedia.co.ke