For seven centuries, the low-slung shoreline of Lamu Old Town, set against the turquoise waters of Kenya's coast, has attracted traders and speculators alike.

But few have wanted to stamp their imprint on its mangrove-lined seaboard as definitively as Africa's richest man, Nigerian oil magnate Aliko Dangote.

The billionaire is laying the groundwork for a giant refinery across the bay from the 700-year-old Swahili trading port, which the United Nations has designated a global treasure on this pristine portion of Indian Ocean coast.

The plans set up a clash between Dangote and economically minded Kenyan officials who support the project and the jobs it promises, and tourism operators and environmentalists worried about the potential impact on Lamu and neighboring islands, as well as the character of a remote site that has proven remarkably resistant to change.

Dangote Industries has already started soil tests and is ordering equipment for the refinery, according to group vice president Devakumar V.G. Edwin. "We want to do it on a fast-track basis," he said.

In late September, a Kenyan court ordered a pause to construction after more than 100 Lamu residents sued alleging that the refinery threatened ancestral land where they had farmed and buried their families for generations.

Kenyan officials say the $15 billion project would boost Kenya's energy security and reduce East Africa's reliance on refined-fuel imports from the Gulf. It would also create 60,000 jobs across construction and operations, they say. The Kenyan government has acquired an equity stake in the project, which has strong political backing, bolstered by the fallout of the U.S.-Iran war on international energy markets.

The U.N. describes Lamu Old Town, designated as a World Heritage site, as "the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa." Its narrow, labyrinthine streets are lined with stone buildings that blend Swahili, Arabic, Persian, Indian and European building styles.

Merchants followed the trade winds south from Oman and elsewhere in the Arab Peninsula for hundreds of years, bringing to the African coast everything from silks and porcelain to brass and paper. They would return when the winds shifted, their traditional dhow sailboats carrying slaves, spices, mangrove poles, ivory and skins.

"People come here because it feels like it's at the edge of the world," said Jamil Mbarak, whose family owns the Banana House and Wellness Centre resort in Shela, the next settlement down the beach from Lamu Old Town.

The Kenyan government has already built a large container port on the mainland a few miles from Lamu Island, its lights and cranes visible from the rooftop of Banana House. Mbarak fears that view may soon be blemished by passing oil tankers, and the breeze could carry industrial odors from the refinery.

The port was constructed as the terminus of a planned $25 billion economic corridor, with roads, rail and an oil pipeline linking Lamu to landlocked South Sudan and Ethiopia.

Although the Chinese-built port opened in 2021, progress on the rest of the corridor slowed due to funding deficits and attacks on construction workers by the Somalia-based Islamist extremist group al-Shabaab. The port itself remained largely unused.

But recently, stacks of Gulf-bound cargo have filled the previously empty container yard, diverted to Kenya by disruptions the Iran war has created in the Strait of Hormuz. In the first six months of this year, Lamu port handled double the cargo volumes it did in all of 2025, according to manager Abdulaziz Mzee. Kenyan officials see the refinery as a ticket to reviving the port and wider economic corridor, and some locals anticipate an infusion of resources into a corner of Kenya that has missed out on the economic growth enjoyed by Nairobi and the port of Mombasa, further down the coast.

Dangote Industries says it will import most of the crude oil it plans to refine from Nigeria, the U.S., Brazil, Libya, Angola and Ghana and to export refined products from Lamu's existing port, which the company says it will expand.

Dangote's move follows the success of his $20 billion refinery outside of Lagos, Nigeria, which reached full capacity in February-just in time to supply the world with diesel, jet fuel and gasoline that doesn't need to pass through the Strait of Hormuz or the narrow Bab al-Mandeb waterway on the southwestern corner of the Arab Peninsula. Dangote plans to double the capacity of the Nigerian refinery to 1.4 million barrels a day. In September, his company began selling shares in the facility, aiming to raise $1.6 billion from up to 10 million shareholders.

The company projects its Lamu refinery will process 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

Monicah Muthoni Marubu, a Kenyan lawmaker from Lamu County, said that while the island's heritage status should be protected, it makes up only a fraction of a larger county.

"We love the tourism industry-it's a major contributor to our economy," said Marubu. But, she said, tourism isn't sufficient to keep most people employed.

"Our culture is beautiful, but we cannot eat culture," she said.

Dangote Industries promises to adhere to stringent European Union and U.S. oil-quality and environmental standards, to ensure it can sell to either market, and says it has applied for environmental certifications.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which designates World Heritage sites, says it has asked the Kenyan government for information about the Lamu refinery plans. But the agency hasn't taken a position on the development.

Unesco "has consistently considered extractive-industry activities to be incompatible with World Heritage status," an agency spokeswoman said. "While a refinery project does not in itself constitute an extractive-industry activity, as with any major development project, its compatibility with the protection of a World Heritage property would need to be assessed on the basis of its potential impacts" on what the U.N. calls its "outstanding universal value."

Environmental and heritage studies would be needed before decisions over the refinery were reached, the spokeswoman said.

"This project threatens to damage one of East Africa's most-fragile ecosystems, while locking Kenya into a risky fossil-fuel future," said Sherelee Odayar, a campaigner with Greenpeace Africa.

"Decisions of this magnitude cannot bypass the people of Lamu."

Lamu hosts 70% of Kenya's mangrove forests that provide a massive carbon sink and are vital breeding grounds for marine life and migratory birds. Government studies have predicted that more than a third of those mangroves could be lost during development of the economic corridor. Locals say dredging for the port already damaged coral reefs, resulting in a decline in marine life and tourist interest at a popular snorkeling site.

Past developments, including the port and abandoned coal and wind-power plants, left farmers and fishermen in yearslong battles over compensation and resettlement.

Fishermen fear expanded industrial operations will restrict access to close-in fishing grounds, pushing them into riskier waters.

"It will affect us because big ships will be passing through so there will be more restrictions, and we would need to go much further to fish," said Omar Lali, a 27-year-old fisherman.

A big wild card for the project remains al-Shabaab, the al Qaeda affiliate that has expanded its war against the Somali government into border areas of Kenya.

U.S. and Kenyan troops engaged in the fight against al-Shabaab are stationed at Kenya's Manda Bay Naval base, a short distance from the Lamu port. In 2020, al-Shabaab fighters attacked the base, killing a U.S. soldier and two American contractors.