LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki hosted South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir and Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, at an inauguration ceremony in Mokowe on the Indian Ocean coast.

"This is a massive project, the first of its kind here in Kenya. All three countries say that they will share the cost, and there are reports that the Chinese will contribute," Al Jazeera correspondent Nazanine Moshiri, reported.

"But it is very difficult to see how they will be able to share so much money in such a short space of time."

The project entails 32 port berths connected to the region by thousands of kilometers of new rail tracks and pipeline delivering South Sudanese oil to the new refinery.

"They key to all of this for South Sudan is the oil pipeline of more than a thousand kilometers, which would solve the problem of how to get its crude oil out to the international community," Moshiri adds.

"The railway network, which will connect South Sudan and Kenya and also connect Kenya to Ethiopia, will boost the economy and create jobs."

Lamu residents dread the sheer scope of the project and how it will affect their livelihood. While Kenya describes the project as the most ambitious ever undertaken by any independent African country, the local community is deeply concerned. They say they are not being compensated for the project, saying that they are going to lose out on tourism and fishing trade that generates most of the income in the coastal town.

"There will be an over-exploitation of resources without proper mitigation measures in place," Atwaa Salim Mohamed of the Lamu Marine Conservation Trust says.

"We'll be losing a certain percentage of our mangroves. We'll be losing a certain percentage of our coral reefs, and we'll be losing our pristine beaches to some extent, and also the fishing and breeding grounds for turtles."

There are also concerns that the project could affect Lamu town, whose ancient Swahili architecture is listed as a world heritage site by the U.N.'s UNESCO cultural body.

The project will have to overcome possible threats from bandits in northern Kenya and al-Shabab fighters operating close to Lamu in nearby Somalia, as well as from pirates preying on the region's maritime traffic.

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