'Why didn't you tell me about my own refinery?' Samia confronts Ruto

President William Ruto and his Tanzanian counterpart Samia Suluhu Hassan. [File,Standard]

 Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has publicly rebuked President William Ruto in Dar es Salaam over his announcement of a major oil refinery in Tanzania.

Samia pressed Ruto to explain himself after he had, alongside Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, publicly backed a plan to build a 650,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery in Tanga, a port city in northeastern Tanzania, during the Africa We Build Summit 2026 in Nairobi on April 23.

"When we were speaking inside there, I confronted Ruto and asked him: you went and announced a refinery in Tanga, why didn't I know about it? Now he will speak for himself on why he made that announcement," Samia said, speaking in Swahili at State House in Dar es Salaam on Monday, where the two leaders had just signed eight bilateral agreements.

The rebuke laid bare a diplomatic gap at the heart of a project promoted as a symbol of East African unity.

Ruto had told the Nairobi summit that East Africa would build "one big refinery" in Tanga to process crude from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

The proposed facility would sit in Tanga and connect via a pipeline to Kenya's Mombasa port, serving the wider East African region.

Dangote, whose Lagos complex processes 650,000 barrels a day, told the Nairobi summit he was ready to replicate it in East Africa.

 "My commitment today is that we will lead the refinery and ensure it is delivered within the next four to five years," he said.

Ruto's press statement at State House made no mention of the refinery controversy.

He said bilateral trade between Kenya and Tanzania reached $860.3 million in 2025, and that both countries had committed to eliminating all outstanding non-tariff barriers by June 30.

The two leaders also reaffirmed commitment to the Voi-Mwatate-Taveta railway line and the Malindi-Bagamoyo Super Highway, and said 564 of the 778-kilometre shared boundary had been demarcated, with a 2027 African Union deadline for completion.