Government Spokesman Isaac Mwaura has condemned some Kenyans who have been taunting Raila Odinga Junior’s facial features in social media posts and online trends.
Outraged on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, Mwaura termed the trend as “horrendous,” adding that it was immoral to make a person’s appearance entertaining content.
It’s completely wrong to body shame someone for how they look since they have a condition that’s hereditary. It’s worse still to devise a ‘challenge’ that’s simply about body shaming,” Mwaura added.
“This kind of act speaks volumes about your bad upbringing and character in the name of content creation. Let’s be human once.”.
This was against some TikTok videos whereby the users were mimicking Raila Junior’s lips and lip-synced videos, among them some of his recent speeches at the burial of his deceased father, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
All the creators in the videos distort their faces to replicate Junior, earning them furious criticism on the internet. Most of the users of TikTok have since condemned the trend, with some even banding together to report the offending content.
From the TikTok comment sections to the lengthy Facebook posts, Kenyans across all social media accounts have thundered in agony demanding decency and humanity for the Odinga family. Mwaura’s declaration is a culmination of the voices summoning restraint and humanity online by the creators.
Raila Junior’s Condition
Raila Junior has come out publicly and publicly to announce that he is coping with Acoustic Neuroma, also known as Vestibular Schwannoma, a benign, uncommon tumor of the nerve between inner ear and brain.
The disease, he says runs in his mother’s family, causes partial paralysis on one side of his face.
In speaking during an interview in 2022, Junior clarified that he doesn’t have Bell’s Palsy, which had been widely misinterpreted by most to be responsible for his symptoms.
“I have what they say is an Acoustic Schwannoma. It’s a benign tumor on the back of my head,” he explained.
“It presses on my third ventricle, which deals with the nerves in the right side of my face. That’s what caused the paralysis.”
Despite coming out about his experience of their health, Raila Junior has still had insensitive comments on social media something that Mwaura and the majority of Kenyans have referred to as a pitiful sign of declining social media empathy.