Nairobi, Aug. 22 -- Webmasters Kenya Limited, the firm behind the eCitizen platform, has been blacklisted from World Bank-funded projects for five years after it listed two individuals as 'experts' in a tender bid document for a project in Somalia financed by the multilateral lender.

The 'experts', however, later told investigators they had been listed by Webmasters for the job without their knowledge, sparking the debarment from World Bank projects.

The World Bank case against Webmasters Kenya Ltd and its founder and CEO James Ayugi is hinged on how the two unnamed professionals were presented as key personnel for a contract, with the firm confirming their availability during negotiations. The two later denied authorising the use of th...