A Kenyan tribunal dismissed a case filed by a consumer-rights group challenging plans by Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, to build a replica of his 700,000 barrel-a-day Nigerian oil refinery in the Lamu archipelago.
The suit failed to prove the $16 billion project is a public-private partnership, the Public Private Partnerships Petition Committee said in a judgment on Friday.
The Consumers Federation of Kenya had asked the tribunal to order disclosures on the East African nation’s funding and public liabilities arising from the government’s support of the project, according to filings.
“The petitioner neither proved that the project is a PPP nor laid any legal basis for the Petition Committee to order for disclosure of any documents,” the tribunal said.
Treasury Secretary John Mbadi told the court that Dangote’s new refinery is “a private commercial investment” and there will be no eventual transfer of the project back to the state. The role of the government “is support that would be available to any qualifying private investor,” he said.
Dangote’s clearing of this legal hurdle paves the way for the refinery that’s meant to cut eastern Africa’s complete reliance on imported refined fuel.
The case for such a facility to serve the region has been amplified by the US-Israeli war on Iran, which led to higher fuel prices and dwindling inventories as the conflict resulted in closure of Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for about a fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Two weeks ago, a high court judge lifted an order that had halted construction of the petrochemical complex, a legal challenge filed by 133 local inhabitants of Lamu who say their land ownership rights have been violated.
During groundbreaking for the project, Dangote has brushed off legal challenges to it, saying, “anybody who wants to cause trouble, we are ready for his trouble and we’ll give him headache.”
The planned refinery is part of a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure plan known as the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport, or Lapsset, corridor that includes railways, pipelines, a power plant, roads and airports.
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