Before World Bank cut ties with Webmasters for listing “fake” experts for a project in Somalia, the company and its founder, James Ayugi, had already hit the headlines for the wrong reasons back home.
Mr Ayugi and Webmasters, the company behind the eCitizen platform, were recently banned from World Bank-funded projects for five years, adding to the controversies that have dogged the techpreneur since he built the expansive digital platform in 2013.
The World Bank took the action after claims that the company listed two individuals as “experts” in a tender bid document for a project in Somalia financed by the bank.
The “experts” later told investigators that they had been listed by Webmasters for the job without their knowledge, sparking the debarment from World Bank projects.
Mr Ayugi insists the company has records showing the two professionals, who are Somalia citizens, did indeed apply for the jobs and sent their CVs.
The debarment is a major blow for Mr Ayugi because it was through the “World” in the multilateral lender’s name that he took his projects across the globe — from Iraq and Bangladesh to Zambia, Rwanda, Benin, Lesotho, South Sudan, Somalia and Malawi.
And it was the “Bank” in World Bank that helped ensure governments had the money to pay for them.
If the World Bank made Mr Ayugi famous around the globe, eCitizen may have made him infamous at home, where hardly a government project is mentioned without a whiff of controversy.
Indeed, without the eCitizen tag, Mr Ayugi and Webmasters’ debarment might barely have made headlines.
In March last year, it emerged that eCitizen was being run by a consortium of three companies – Webmasters Kenya, Pesaflow and Olivetree – all associated with Mr Ayugi.
At the heart of the controversy is the Sh50 charge imposed on every transaction a Kenyan makes on the platform, described as a “convenience fee”.
Mr Ayugi says Webmasters only receives a fraction of this fee for being the brains behind the technology and for maintenance of the platform.
He has no regrets being associated with eCitizen, an idea he conceived around 2013 and which he believes has had a huge impact on Kenyans.
“It is a privilege to be associated with eCitizen as James and as Webmasters,” he says.
“We don’t feel offended because these projects are working. The projects are successful and a source of pride.”
However, the noise around eCitizen pales in comparison with the World Bank debarment, which could leave a deeper scar on Webmasters’ reputation just as the firm seeks to venture into the territory of creating solutions that directly affect citizens.
The World Bank says Webmasters Kenya presented the two professionals as key personnel for a contract, with the company confirming their availability during negotiations.
The pair later denied authorising the use of their CVs or participating in the assignment.
“That is a story for another day,” Mr Ayugi says when confronted with the World Bank’s claim that the professionals denied authorising the use of their CVs.
“The project manager contacted them and how they shared all those things. These are things that are available,” he says.
According to Mr Ayugi, the two may have found other opportunities and forgotten that they had sent their resumes and other details.
“Nitajuaje mtu wa Somalia? (How would I even know someone from Somalia)?” asks Mr Ayugi, adding that part of the condition for the project was for Webmasters to hire local talent.
He says the company later found a replacement, and the project – which involved developing the Somali government’s digital services platform – was eventually completed and handed over to the government.
Although Mr Ayugi has perfected working with governments, he feels this is having a toll on him and Webmasters and would like to pivot to open-market tenders.
At the time of the interview, he wears a matching black suit, a black T-shirt and his trademark black ascot. This time, the dreadlocks that usually protrude from the sides are gone. It is, perhaps, part of the transition.
“The World Bank shaped the person I have become and the company we are. Most of our projects were financed by the bank and we appreciate that,” the 41-year-old says.
Mr Ayugi, who denies any wrongdoing and insists that the Somalia project was successfully handed over to the government, sees the debarment differently.
To him, the World Bank is merely handing Webmasters over to the world – an opportunity to transition from being a purely GovTech firm to building solutions that directly benefit citizens.
“With our skills and knowledge, you will be seeing these solutions. Now we won’t be wasting time on tender preparations,” he says.
“We’ll be developing solutions that will solve problems citizens face every single day.”
It might or might not work for Mr Ayugi. The transition will not be easy for the techpreneur behind one of Kenya’s most expansive digital platforms, which has brought hundreds of government services onto a single online platform.
Webmasters’ relationship with the World Bank, which would eventually give birth to eCitizen, started in 2008, when Ayugi was just 23. He had been bitten by the computer bug.
His childhood dream of becoming a star musician that saw him hitch a ride from Busia to the capital city was still alive.
At the time, the World Bank Group’s private-sector investment arm – the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – was looking for a local company to customise for Kenya an e-registry developed by a Norwegian firm.
Mr Ayugi says the IFC took a chance on him, despite his lack of international experience, “because I was very energetic”.
“I believed I could deliver anything,” he says.
Before then, he had already started working with the government, designing a website for the Ministry of Lands in 2005.
The relationship would then blossom, with the World Bank and Webmasters walking in lockstep across the planet, initially helping governments digitise services and improve the ease of doing business.
Eighteen years later, the relationship has soured, with Mr Ayugi saying he would like to move on from the break-up. But walking away may not be that easy.
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