Ruto takes development-and-politics tour to Coast with 190,000 title deeds and Sh2trillion refinery
Yet the growing practice of announcing, launching and inspecting projects during presidential tours has also raised questions about the gap between political announcements, budgetary provision and actual implementation.
President William Ruto returns to the Coast today for another high-profile development tour, taking his administration’s project-launching campaign to six counties less than a year before the 2027 General Election.
The president will traverse Taita-Taveta, Kwale, Kilifi, Mombasa, Tana River and Lamu, where he is scheduled to issue nearly 190,000 title deeds, inspect and commission projects and launch new developments, including the proposed Sh2 trillion East Africa Refinery in Lamu.
The tour comes against the backdrop of an increasingly frequent pattern in which the President has criss-crossed politically significant regions, combining government project launches and inspections with meetings with local leaders and public rallies.
In recent months, Ruto has undertaken similar development tours in Western Kenya, Nyanza and the South Rift, unveiling roads, housing projects, markets, health facilities, water programmes, electricity connections and other infrastructure.
The political dimension of the tours has become increasingly pronounced as the country heads towards the 2027 elections.
During his recent Nyanza tour, for instance, the president explicitly asked residents to judge his administration on its development record, describing the next election as a referendum on delivery.
Critics have said that Ruto is increasingly using project launches, inspections and commissioning ceremonies as part of his broader political strategy ahead of 2027.
They have also interpreted president’s extensive project tours in opposition strongholds as a ploy to attracting support over their electoral significance.
The latest Coast tour follows the same template.
State House says Ruto will begin in Taita-Taveta, where 31,318 title deeds will be issued to residents of Mwatate and Voi constituencies.
He will then move to Kwale on Monday, where 94,175 title deeds are scheduled for beneficiaries in Lunga Lunga, Msambweni and Kinango constituencies.
Kilifi will receive another 36,826 titles for residents of Kaloleni, Rabai, Ganze, Kilifi South and Malindi, while 4,360 documents will be issued in Mombasa.
A further 22,770 title deeds will be distributed in Lamu and Tana River.
The combined 189,449 titles form part of the government’s plan to issue 500,000 land ownership documents in the Coast region, where historical land ownership disputes, squatter settlements and delays in formalising ownership have remained contentious issues for decades.
For thousands of beneficiaries, the documents could provide formal recognition of land ownership and make it easier to develop, transfer or use their property for economic purposes.
But it is the proposed Lamu refinery that will provide the most spectacular centrepiece of the tour.
Ruto is expected to break ground for the proposed $16 billion, or more than Sh2 trillion, East Africa Refinery, a project involving the Kenyan government and Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote.
The refinery is designed to process crude from the Lokichar oil fields in Turkana and supply refined petroleum products to Kenya and other markets in East and Central Africa.
The government said the project will strengthen energy security and create hundreds of thousands of jobs, although the President has separately cited an estimated 60,000 youth jobs associated with the project.
The project was among the investments discussed by Ruto and Dangote on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, with the groundbreaking now scheduled for Lamu.
Yet the growing practice of announcing, launching and inspecting projects during presidential tours has also raised questions about the gap between political announcements, budgetary provision and actual implementation.
The Controller of Budget (CoB) Dr. Margaret Nyakang’o’s report published earlier this year found that several flagship projects associated with the Ruto administration were behind schedule despite receiving budgetary allocations, including programmes in housing, transport, manufacturing, agriculture, the blue economy, land reforms and infrastructure.
The Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone, for instance, was reported to be only 14 per cent complete against its June 2026 completion target.
The government has since responded by stepping up project reviews and inspections, with the administration saying it is seeking to unlock stalled programmes and accelerate implementation.
In July, Deputy President Kithure Kindiki announced that Sh177 billion in pending bills owed to contractors for projects stalled during 2020–2021 had been cleared.
