With Dangote, government has shown its hand

President William Ruto and businessman Aliko Dangote at the Dangote East Africa Petroleum Refinery in Mokowe, Lamu County. [PCS]

Africa has come of age. The African renaissance is here with us, and it has come in the form and shape of the unassuming Aliko Dangote, one of a handful of African dollar billionaires.

Last week’s launch of the Sh2 trillion oil refinery in Lamu marks a huge milestone for Kenya and indeed Africa. It is the kind of investment any country would be happy to host. The benefits have been enumerated – job creation (direct and indirect), price stability for oil and its by products, inflow of foreign direct investment and technology transfer among others. We need not repeat them.

All I can say is that this is an investment worth toasting to. We have heard that there was a time in the recent past when the self-same Dangote wanted to invest in a cement factory here in Kenya. Rumour has it that rent seekers insisted on a rather fat cut of the deal that the man walked away – as he ought to have done.

If this is true, as the Arabs would say, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest their armpits! It does not matter which government or individual did this: they are rogues who should be put to shame.

Dangote’s is the kind of investment that Kenya needs. We badly need foreign direct investment that will impact on the country’s economy (it’s been estimated that the GDP growth will be boosted to over 10 per cent on commissioning of this refinery). As the saying goes, this tide will float all our boats.

We have had our fair share of fly-by-night so-called prominent businessmen (such as President William Ruto’s rotund buddy who recently died in a chopper accident). Perhaps the President should brief us on exactly what kind of investments his buddy was involved in?

At the risk of being seen as speaking ill of the dear departed, can someone point out a business in Kenya or Zimbabwe (or any other country the fellow was parading his limousines in) that he was engaged in and how many people were under his employ? How much foreign direct investments did he bring into the country? Or, perhaps, he was taking out some money rather than bringing it in? Allow me not to speculate.

The point is, and I reiterate, we need Dangote kind of money, an investment that has measurable impact on the lives of people, not ghost money that only exists on social media posts.

And for once, the government machinery moved like clockwork in making the refinery happen. I just love the way the investment was expedited through the bureaucratic maze that is our government. The President appears to have decided that this refinery must happen. And happen it will. As he put it during the groundbreaking for the refinery, “we will see through this investment no matter what.” The president’s word can move mountains.

I wish he would exhibit the same commitment when it comes to other investments. Why discriminate when it comes to other investments? We have another huge outlay that would have brought in millions of dollars in FDI as well as padded the government’s kitty by more than Sh40 billion. I am referring to the Diageo/Asahi deal. All that is required is for the President to make one phone call to the Competitions Authority Director General, and hey presto, deal closed. Unless of course there are some other underlying issues that we are not privy to, we must apply the same principles across the board.

I am also seeing our courts becoming rather active of late, issuing all manner of injunctions that impact on investments. I am not very knowledgeable on matters law but I have always believed that as much as everyone has a right to seek legal redress, our courts should sometimes not be kept busy on frivolous matters or what lawyers refer to as vexatious litigation.

I will not delve into any specifics lest I stray into sub-judice territory, but I am on the opinion that the good of the majority should override that of the minority. Two or three people with grievances should not impact on the entire village simply so that the law is seen to be in effect. That is bad law.

-The writer is a communications consultant