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Eric Omondi claims he has collected 430K Gen Z signatures for referendum to reduce counties
09th July, 2026 06:29 AM
Stand-up comedian and human rights activist Eric Omondi has claimed that he has already collected more than 430,000 signatures from Gen Z supporters as part of a campaign to push for a constitutional referendum aimed at reducing the number of counties in Kenya.
Speaking during an interview with a local media house on Thursday, July 9, 2026, Omondi said the campaign still requires another 500,000 signatures before it can move to the next stage.
“I have over 430,000 signatures from Gen Zs. We just need to do another 500,000, and then we have a referendum to reduce counties from 47 to the former eight,” Omondi claimed.
According to Omondi, the proposed referendum seeks to overhaul the country’s governance structure by reducing what he described as unnecessary elective and appointed positions.
“We are going to do away with women reps, senators, nominated members, Cabinet secretaries, and all those unnecessary seats,” he added.
Eric on counties and devolution
The comedian argued that Kenya’s governance system has become too expensive due to what he termed over-representation at both the national and county levels.
“I have been saying we are going to have a new Kenya; we have a problem in both national and county levels. Our biggest cancer is the county devolution”, Omondi said.
While acknowledging that the idea behind devolution was well-intentioned, Omondi argued that its implementation has fallen short of expectations.
“Raila Amollo Odinga had the best idea for this country: let’s devolve development, but we ended up devolving corruption, nepotism, and tribalism,” he explained.
He further claimed that the country has too many public officials representing a single citizen, a situation he believes has contributed to misuse of public resources.
“We have over-representation, which results in misappropriation,” he said.
“One Kenyan is represented by 18 people; one Kenyan has a president, deputy president, prime cabinet secretary, governor, deputy governor, senator, women’s rep, MP, nominated MP, nominated senator, MCA, regional commissioner, county director, chief, assistant chief, village elder, Nyumba Kumi and still has 22 cabinet secretaries.”
Referendum
The activist first launched the referendum push in August 2024, unveiling a campaign to collect one million signatures to support constitutional changes aimed at reducing the number of counties from 47 to the former eight.
At the time, he also proposed abolishing the positions of women representatives, senators and nominated legislators, arguing that Kenya’s governance structure had become too costly and that devolution had fuelled corruption instead of development.
