Edgar Obare, also known as The Tea Master, is a Kenyan Vlogger and a content creator on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. He exposes celebrities, politicians, and Kenyans in general to cheating affairs, corruption, and gossip. In this article, we are going to explore all reasons Why Kenyans Lost Faith in Edgar Obare
The videographer has released controversial stories which have led to arrests and even death threats. The vlogger uses these media platforms to share his stories:
YouTube
Edgar Obare has a channel on the platform. Banana News Network (BNN) is the name of the channel. He started it during his college days in Italy. After a skiing accident, which left him immobile for a few months, the vlogger started to upload videos of him traveling around.
The YouTube channel has gained over 130,000 subscribers, and over 200 videos have been posted with over 1 million views per month.
Telegram
On this platform, he also has a group by the name Banana News Network (BNN). Since his Instagram page was deactivated, Edgar opened a Telegram group. This platform is secure, and the vlogger uses it to deliver his stories unbiased.
One of the stories he posted was about him being hospitalized after eating seafood at a Nairobi restaurant. The seafood caused a severe allergic reaction.
His first Instagram page (@edgarobare) was deactivated after an expose about illegal business done by prominent Kenyan politicians as well as celebrities. The ‘was wash’ business of money laundering led to the Instagram page being deactivated.
The page had over 400,000 followers. Later, he opened another page BNN Africa which has over 146k followers. The page focuses on online marketing.
Edgar’s Twitter account is (@Edgarobare). He has trended several times on Twitter due to his exposes. Many of his followers love to read the controversial gossip making him a trending topic on Twitter.
He has over 107k followers making him one of the biggest influencers in Kenya.
His Facebook page is Edgar Obare, where he also writes and posts stories. His several followers are key to his vlogging.
Edgar Obare is not just a content creator. He studied Bachelor of Science in Information System and Technology at United States International University Africa (USIU), graduating in 2014, then went to Italy to further his studies.
He went to Europe, graduating in 2019 with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science. He has worked in several companies, such as Physical Computing Department, in the design studio, and as a web developer at Kul Graphics from 2015 to 2016.
The influencer has had several controversies but also has his morals. During an interview, the vlogger admitted that he does not blog about the LGBTQ community and does not talk about children or blog about them too. He also admitted that he does not blog to settle personal vendettas.
He has done stories of several celebrities such as DNG, Alex Mwakideu, Natalie Tawe, Jalang’o, Tanasha Donna and Terrence Creative, etc…
Why Kenyans Lost Faith in Edgar Obare
Due to the nature of the stories he produces, Edgar Obare has rubbed many people in the country the wrong way. This has led to many Kenyans losing faith in him and his stories. Some of the reasons:
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1. Impending Other People’s Privacy
The BNN channels mostly focus on giving gossip stories about celebrities and other Kenyans. This has led most Kenyans and his followers to question his intentions. Kenyans started to hate the nature of his investigative reports causing Edgar to lose his following.
People are not perfect and will make mistakes; therefore, castigating them in the public eye is considered hypocritical for Edgar.
2. Emotional Torture
The stories that Edgar produces and posts are about other people’s private life, such as infidelity claims. When he exposes a person cheating on their partner, it may lead to emotional pain. Kenyans are therefore avoiding Edgar’s stories to protect the image and emotional distress of the people mentioned in the exposed stories. Gaining through other people’s misery has caused Obare many fans to unfollow him.
3. Extortion
Edgar Obare and Desy Oduor Achieng were charged with extorting a Kenyan politician. Edgar and the co-accused were extorting the politician, failure to which they threatened to publish a fake story about the politician. They alleged that the politician had impregnated the co-accused.
Edgar later published the fake story, and many Kenyans were angry at him, leading to them questioning his other stories and Obare losing his credibility.
4. Exploitation
Claims by police that Edgar was exploiting innocent ladies to extort many from prominent Kenyans also rubbed his followers wrongly. Obare was accused of coaching ladies and using them to extort money from prominent individuals.
These accusations led to Obare losing a huge fan base.
5. Endangering Life
After he exposed celebrities in the ‘wash wash’ scandal, the controversial blogger’s brother was kidnapped and tortured. Obare claimed the kidnappers wanted to find his whereabouts of him. Edgar has also been abducted in the past, and he says the police do not help him find justice. Due to these kidnaps, many Kenyans do not agree with how he is endangering his life and that of his brother.
Most Kenyans would rather see him posting stories about his travels rather than gossip and controversial topics that endanger his life and that of his family.
After an expose on ‘Jalango and his boy-club,’ the vlogger alleged that Jalango wants him dead, claims that the media personality refuted.
Conclusion
Due to the kind of journalism that Obare indulged in, most Kenyans agree to disagree. Posting stories about the private life of his fellow Kenyans may lead to his death or that of his close associates; therefore, many Kenyans are losing faith due to the dangers in this line of work.
Edgar Obare as an investigative journalist, should consider reporting on other types of news like the level of unemployment, corruption, or the rising cost of living in Kenya.
