At one time Brian Githehu was accorded the highest form of hospitality compared to the rest of the people because of his appearance. He was perceived to be financially heavy while he struggled with weight issues.
For a man that at his heaviest has weighed 160 kg, this was just one of the many incidents he has encountered associated with his weight.
“I found myself facing two kinds of stigma. One from weight and another from being broke at the same time,” Brian recalled.
At an event held in Westlands, Nairobi to mark World Obesity Day on 4th March 2026, Brian took the bold step of shedding off the weight of his weighty struggle.
Brian remembers the day he was turned away from a public weighing scale by the “pima weight” attendants. Not because he didn’t have money. Not because it was broken. But because his weight exceeded the machine’s limit.
“They just told me it couldn’t handle me,” he recalls. “I felt like even the machine had rejected me.”
For most people, crossing their legs is automatic. Fastening a seat belt is routine. Sitting on a chair is thoughtless.
For Brian, these were daily battles.
He couldn’t cross his legs comfortably. On flights or in cars, he needed a seat belt extender – a quiet humiliation that felt anything but quiet. Before sitting on plastic chairs at events, he would push them against a wall for reinforcement, bracing for the possibility that they might collapse under him.
Shopping for clothes? A nightmare. Stores rarely stocked his size. Each failed attempt to find something that fit chipped away at his self-esteem.
Brian stated this impacted his mental health and considered committing suicide.
“You see people finding clothes their size while there is none for you and this affects your mental health. Having struggled with weight issues for the longest time with no progress you feel that suicide is the best way out,” revealed Brian.
Excessive body weight has been noted to be a major contributor of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, hypertension and joint disease like wearing of knee joints that require joint replacement.
According to Dr. Dan Gikonyo all these conditions are to a certain extend related to body weight.
“Losing weight is a major health improvement that’s why we have World Obesity Day to encourage people to work hard to reduce their body weight,” said Dr. Gikonyo.
After trying all means to reduce and manage his weight with no success, Brian resorted to undergo a bariatric surgery.
Having done the surgery, Brian currently weighs 113 kgs and is still on the journey of managing his weight and is keen on what he consumes.
However, he adds obesity is more of a disease than a lifestyle condition.
According to statistics, there are currently one billion people living with obesity in the world and this is likely to get to 4 billion in 2035.
