Kenyan President William Ruto used his state visit to Tanzania to push a proposal for a regional oil refinery, securing cautious political backing while exposing gaps in prior consultation with the host government.

 

The plan, first floated in Nairobi on April 28 at a mining conference attended by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote, centres on building a refinery in Tanga to process crude from across East and Central Africa.

Dangote is understood to have offered financing for the project, which would mirror his large-scale refinery in Nigeria.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan publicly rebuked Ruto on his arrival in Dar es Salaam on Monday, prompting the Kenyan leader to spend much of his two-day visit clarifying the proposal and building support.

Ruto’s subsequent engagements, including a Tanzania–Kenya Business Forum in Dar es Salaam and an address to Tanzania’s National Assembly in Dodoma, helped steady the narrative.

In parliament, where the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) holds an overwhelming majority, MPs signalled broad openness to the idea, paving the way for further negotiations.

Jumaa Aweso, MP for Pangani in Tanga and Minister for Water and Irrigation, said his constituency would “willingly participate in making this enterprise a success according to the instructions we receive from the President.”Deal architectureDuring the visit, Kenya and Tanzania signed eight bilateral agreements spanning energy, infrastructure and trade. These included a feasibility study for a natural gas pipeline from Dar es Salaam to Mombasa and cooperation on railway development and management.

Other memoranda covered legal cooperation, agriculture, public service capacity building, maritime affairs, seafarer certification and standards harmonisation.

The two countries also committed to removing remaining non-tariff barriers (NTBs) by June 30 to boost trade, which reached $860.3 million in 2025, nearly 40 percent of intra-East African Community (EAC) trade.

Ruto said flows could already have exceeded $1 billion were it not for bureaucratic constraints that reduced trade by nearly $100 million between 2024 and 2025.

In a 57-minute impassioned address to parliament on Tuesday, Ruto framed the refinery proposal as part of a broader push for regional integration and economic sovereignty.“We are engaged in this important conversation nearly four decades after the collapse of the EAC in 1977, which was not, at its core, a clash of ideologies,” he said. “Whether capitalism in Kenya or Ujamaa in Tanzania, each system sought to advance the welfare of the people. Our failure was in building a shared economic vision that worked for all, and in retreating into narrow national interests instead of treating our shared resources, infrastructure, and markets as joint strategic assets for collective benefit.“That was not their failure alone; it becomes our failure if we repeat it. And so, we must ask ourselves honestly: Are we moving forward together, or do we risk becoming victims of the same limiting forces? Are we already repeating mistakes of the past?”He argued that the location of the refinery was secondary to its regional impact.“While I would naturally have preferred such a facility in Mombasa, I fully recognise that Tanga, less than 200km away, is part of the same economic space,” he said. “What matters is not whether it strengthens our shared prosperity.”Regional opticsRuto also addressed concerns over perceived trade imbalances, often seen as favouring Kenya, pointing to rising Tanzanian investments in Kenya.

He said these could “more than double this year” if “suspicions and mistrust” between the two countries were resolved.“There is a saying that you can choose your friends but your neighbours are chosen by God. Let’s stop this common myth that Kenyans and Tanzanians are enemies,” he added.

While details were limited, discussions reportedly covered elimination of NTBs, linking Kigali to Tanzania’s standard gauge railway project and joint energy cooperation, including the 80 megawatts Rusumo hydropower project shared with Burundi.

Kagame’s quick visit drew attention given that he did not publicly congratulate Samia on her disputed October 2025 election victory and had maintained silence since, an unusual silence in East African diplomacy.

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