Comedian and humanitarian activist Eric Omondi has officially launched his bid for the referendum on the reduction of the number of counties.
Speaking during the launch on Tuesday, August 20, 2024, Eric disclosed that the referendum aims to reduce the number of counties from the current 47 to eight and elected officials.
Eric further stated that he would be collecting signatures to abolish the nomination and senator positions adding that only a million signatures are needed for the process.
“We have officially launched the process to go to a referendum to reduce the number of counties from 47 to 8 and elected officials we are going to abolish nominated members of parliament(MPs, MCAs and Senators), we are going to abolish the senate, we are going to abolish the position of women representative,” he said.
“We are going around the country collecting signatures all we need is a million signatures which should take us less than two weeks.”
Eric on representation and devolution
He went on to state that Kenyans are overwhelmed adding that the over-representation not only burdens Kenya’s taxpayers but also brings confusion in terms of project developments.
“Kenyans are extremely and overwhelmingly overrepresented, a single Kenyan is represented by 16 persons doing almost the same job,” Eric said.
The vocal humanitarian activist stated that the idea of creating counties was to devolve resources but it has ended up devolving corruption.
“The idea was to devolve resources but we ended up devolving corruption, the taxpayer is overburdened. We are going to do away with the 47 governors and have eight governors. Hatutakuwa na Senators ata MCAs,” Eric added.
Eric on poor governance
The vocal comedian has been on the frontline calling out corrupt government officials and demanding accountability from President William Ruto’s administration.
On Friday, June 21, 2024, he was arrested outside the Parliament Buildings while attempting to lead a demonstration against the controversial Finance Bill 2024.
In a video, Omondi dressed in a red outfit and riding a horse, accompanied by other protesters, chanted “power to the persons” and anti-Finance Bill 2024 slogans as they approached Bunge Towers.
Upon arrival, police officers quickly subdued Omondi and detained him, causing the other protesters to scatter.
The Finance Bill 2024 sparked protests in several counties, including Nairobi, Mombasa, Isiolo, Eldoret, and Nakuru, with many young persons demanding that MPs reject the bill.
Despite these protests, a majority of MPs approved the bill which was later returned to Parliament by Ruto, consequently being withdrawn.
