14 July 2026 – In response to plans by Kenya and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, to construct a 700,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery in Lamu County,Sherelee Odayar, Oil and Gas Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, said:
“This project threatens to damage one of East Africa’s most fragile coastal ecosystems while locking Kenya into a risky fossil fuel future. Lamu’s mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass beds are not expendable; they support fisheries, livelihoods and coastal protection. A mega-refinery of this scale brings habitat destruction, marine degradation, oil spill risk and dangerous air pollution.
“The promise of ‘thousands of jobs’ cannot be used to hide the true cost of this investment. Large fossil fuel projects often create temporary jobs while undermining existing livelihoods in fishing, tourism and small-scale local economies.
“This refinery also risks becoming a stranded asset as the world moves toward cleaner energy. It would also lock Kenya into decades of carbon-intensive development, worsening climate change and its impacts. The enormous capital required for a project of this scale could instead help accelerate Kenya’s renewable energy future through solar, wind, geothermal, storage and better energy access.
“No approvals should move forward without a full, independent environmental and social impact assessment, genuine public participation, and transparent scrutiny of the long-term economic, health and ecological risks.”
Greenpeace Africa is calling for an immediate halt to approvals until an independent Environmental and Social Impact Assessment is completed, publicly released and subjected to meaningful public participation. Any review must assess cumulative impacts on Lamu’s mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass beds and fishing livelihoods, alongside the wider economic risk of locking Kenya into costly fossil fuel infrastructure as the global energy transition accelerates.
