Eric Omondi eats humble pie as ICT CS Joe Mucheru warns him

Comedian Eric Omondi has eaten humble pie and apologised over his raunchy production titled the Wife Material.

The production was to enter its second season after the first broadcasting of the show late last year.

The humorist, in recordings of the first episode and recent trailers of the second show, was caught on tape kissing and touching different women inappropriately.

In one of the trailers, the comedian was caught on camera holding the dress of a woman, who was dancing provocatively on stage in a city entertainment joint. The woman’s dress rose out of position while bending over a raised stage platform, exposing her bare buttocks to a crowd of revellers. The unidentified woman did not have an underwear beneath her green dress.

It is this video, among others, that drew the fury of the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) CEO Dr. Ezekiel Mutua, who instigated the comedian’s arrest on Thursday, March 11.

Eric Omondi, who is scheduled to appear in court on March 18, to face charges of broadcasting unclassified content, was on Friday, March 12 released from Central Police Station on Ksh50,000 police bond.

And now, the comedian, 34, has taken to his Instagram page to apologise for his inappropriate behaviour.

“I have had a very long phone call with my very good friend Daktari Ezekiel Mutua, and he is of the very strong opinion that #WifeMaterial does not have to be dirty to sell,” said Eric Omondi on Instagram, a social media platform he enjoys a following of 3.2 million users.

“I completely agree with him and I have sent him a personal apology. The intention has always been to entertain, and not to offend and I'd like to apologise to anyone who was offended,” he added.

“The whole idea behind #WifeMaterial is to bring East Africa and Africa together through entertainment. The vision is to take over Africa and the dream is to lift the East African and Kenyan flags to the world, and that requires a rigorous and vigorous creative process.

“In order to compete internationally, we need to put our best feet forward. The creative process can be long and tedious and whenever a new idea is born it comes with a lot of teething problems. We promise to be better and do better.”

On Friday, ICT Cabinet Secretary, Joe Mucheru, said he supported KFCB for arresting Eric Omondi, saying the government won’t sit back and watch as young people are corrupted by sexually-explicit content produced by “so-called artists”.

The minister spoke in Naivasha, Nakuru County, where he presided over a meeting with a taskforce on the development of National Film Policy and Bill.

“Some artists are using the [COVID-19] pandemic to produce and promote illegal content. We will not relax until they (offending artists) are all arrested and convicted,” he said.