President William Ruto has said the Sh2 trillion East Africa Oil Refinery in Lamu will be an open and transparent investment, with the government taking a stake and Kenyans allowed to buy shares through the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
Ruto said the planned refinery would not be reserved for a few individuals, insisting that ordinary Kenyans would also have an opportunity to become shareholders.
“The refinery investment is open and transparent,” Ruto said.
The President spoke in Kilifi during his development tour of the Coast, ahead of the planned groundbreaking ceremony for the refinery in Lamu on Wednesday.
He said investors needed an environment where the government facilitated their operations through incentives rather than imposing conditions and demands that could drive them away.
“Investors don’t want to be taken round; they don’t want conditions, they want incentives. They want to know how the government can facilitate,” Ruto said.
He said Kenya had in the past lost potential investments because of what he described as unnecessary demands and conditions placed on investors.
“Part of the reason why our foreign direct investment has not been where we should be is that when you have a government that instead of facilitating investors, instead of giving incentives to investors, you are giving conditions to investors, you are making demands from investors,” he said.
Ruto linked such practices to Kenya’s failure to secure some major investments, including a crude oil pipeline and a cement investment by Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote.
“That is how we have driven away investment from our country; that is how we lost the crude oil pipeline, that is how we lost the investment of cement from Dangote. We will never make those mistakes again,” he said.
Ruto said the refinery’s shareholding would be transparent and accessible through the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
“Nairobi Securities Exchange will sell these shares; every one of our people will go there. Not just the people who have shares. Even the small people will have shares,” he said.
He said the government would educate ordinary Kenyans on how to participate in the investment, arguing that share ownership should not be restricted to experienced investors.
“Even the small people, we will teach them until they buy shares; each one of us will go there,” he said.
The President also criticised unnamed individuals whom he accused of publicly supporting the refinery while allegedly taking steps to challenge the project in court.
“We have read you very well. Don’t pretend that you support the refinery; you support Dangote, but…” he said.
Ruto alleged that the same individuals were behind court cases challenging the investment.
“You are the sponsors of the court cases because you are against this investment,” he said.
He accused them of undermining investments in the country and warned that his administration would not allow efforts to frustrate major projects.
The refinery is expected to process crude from Kenya and other regional sources and supply refined petroleum products to markets in East Africa and beyond.
