Willis Raburu is getting real about the harsh reality of living under the spotlight with a larger body.
In a candid chat on comedian Dr. Ofweneke’s podcast, Raburu revealed the painful history of being stigmatized for his weight—a struggle that eventually led him to undergo a gastric bypass surgery.
Raburu didn’t hold back, sharing that the torment over his body started way before he became a public figure.
The journalist said his battle with body shaming dates back to his childhood.
By eighth grade, he was already weighing in at 100 kg, and the taunts from classmates were relentless.
“I started to hurt about being teased since childhood, and you know when I was a child, when I was in the eighth grade, I already weighed 100 kg,” Raburu admitted.
He also spilled some tea on how his peers would mock him in Luo, assuming he didn’t understand the language.
“They were saying look at how fat this guy is, they call me ‘Rao rabet’ which means ‘fat hippopotamus.’ And at that time I was in class and about 14 years old,” Raburu added.
But the bullying didn’t stop at school.
Raburu said the hate followed him into high school and only got worse once he hit social media, where trolls would tear him apart for his body every time he posted a pic.
The constant ridicule messed with his self-esteem so much that he couldn’t even look at himself in the mirror.
“For a long time, I could not look at myself in the mirror while in a birthday suit. I couldn’t. I don’t think there was a time when I looked in the mirror completely naked. To tell the truth, I looked at myself naked in the mirror for the first time after gastric bypass,” Raburu revealed.
Raburu’s decision to get gastric bypass wasn’t just about shedding pounds—it was about taking back his life after years of being torn down by body shaming. His story is a raw reminder of how cruel words can leave deep scars, and how hard it can be to heal from them.
