The Artivist

1/2 Lamu's Refinery Is Not Tourism's Enemy. It Is Tourism's Biggest Opportunity in a Generation. Tomorrow, His Excellency President William Samoei Ruto @WilliamsRuto and Alhaji Aliko Dangote Dangote @AlikoDangote Industries will break ground on the Dangote East Africa Refinery in Lamu. Before the ribbon is even cut, a familiar chorus has already begun: the refinery will kill Lamu tourism, smoke will choke the dhows, and the tourists will flee. I have spent more than 30 years in this industry. I have watched Kenyan tourism survive terror alerts, travel advisories, pandemics and politics. Let me say this plainly: this refinery is not a threat to tourism in Lamu. It is the single greatest opportunity our coastal hospitality sector has been handed in a generation. ✅️First, understand the size of Lamu Lamu County covers more than 6,000 square kilometres. That is nearly a quarter of the entire Republic of Rwanda, and more than eight times the size of Singapore. Singapore fits a global financial centre, one of the world's busiest ports, heavy petrochemical industry on Jurong Island and a world-class tourism economy into a fraction of Lamu's land mass. Nobody cancels a holiday to Sentosa because there is a refinery down the coast. The refinery sits on the mainland, near the new port at Kililana. Lamu Old Town, Shela, Manda and the archipelago that the world loves remain exactly what they are: a UNESCO World Heritage Site and some of the most beautiful island coastline on the Indian Ocean. Industry and heritage can coexist when there is space and planning. Lamu has both. ✅️Second, follow the money into the hotels This is a $16 billion project, over Ksh 2 trillion, expected to take about three years to build and to create some 60,000 jobs. Think about what that means for anyone who owns a bed in Lamu, Malindi or Watamu. Engineers, project managers, financiers, consultants, contractors, auditors, insurers, government delegations and regional investors will be travelling to Lamu every week for years. They need rooms. They need restaurants. They need transfers, boats, laundry, meeting rooms and weekend escapes. This is corporate business, and corporate business is the most reliable income a hotelier can have. It fills rooms on a wet Tuesday in May, not just on a sunny Saturday in December. For years, Lamu hoteliers have lived and died by the leisure season. Corporate demand will flatten that seasonality. Occupancy in the low months, the very months that bleed our properties, will rise. ✅️Third, MICE is coming, Where industry goes, meetings follow. Suppliers will hold conferences. Regional energy ministers will convene. Investors will want to see the site. Training programmes will run for thousands of new workers. Product launches, board retreats and incentive trips will follow the money. Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions is the highest-yielding segment in global tourism. A MICE delegate spends far more per day than a leisure traveller. Lamu, with its culture, cuisine and island charm, can become the place where East Africa's energy sector does business by day and unwinds at sunset in a dhow. That is a product no other refinery town on earth can offer. ✅️ Fourth, infrastructure changes everything The biggest obstacle to Lamu tourism has never been oil. It has been access. Expensive flights, limited routes, and roads that have tested the patience of every tour operator I know. A project of this scale does not happen without roads, reliable power, water, telecoms, an upgraded airport and more frequent flights. Every one of those investments benefits the tourist. A guest who can fly in easily, stay connected and move safely is a guest who comes back and tells his friends.

A Kenyan by the name Elias Wekesa has taken Safaricom to court, and every Kenyan should pay attention. He says Safaricom deactivated his line after it stayed inactive for a few months, then reassigned it to another person. When he tried using it again, he was met with a shock. The number was gone. Worse, he says he could no longer receive OTPs from his bank and other platforms tied to that number. This case matters because it touches every Kenyan. Because your phone number is no longer just a number. It is tied to your bank account. Your email. Your work accounts. Your private life. The moment that number is handed to someone else, the risks begin. OTPs can go elsewhere. Recovery codes can land in another person’s hands. Account alerts can reach a stranger. That person is not just holding a SIM card. They may be holding access to parts of your digital life. And if they have bad intentions, the damage can be immediate. And for families who have lost loved ones, it cuts even deeper. A parent’s number. A sibling’s number. A loved one’s number. One day, it holds memories. The next day, it belongs to a stranger. This is why Safaricom must be forced to create stronger safeguards before reassigning numbers. Because in today’s world, a phone number is not disposable. It is identity. And identity should never be reassigned without protection.