Boina sets record straight on whether she swallows food in her videos

Content creator Boina’s insatiable appetite has propelled her to stardom. The amount of food she consumes in one sitting has baffled many, leading some to speculate that she does not swallow some of her meals.

This week, TNX sat down with her to set the record straight.

When did you join social media?

I joined social media seven years ago, that’s around 2017. I was just posting photos on Instagram just like ThePluto and the likes were doing. At that time, IG was the thing. I then joined TikTok but I was not consistent until last year in October. I wanted to grow my Tiktok account because IG was not growing as much, I had 12k followers for like five years. People started migrating to TikTok and I did the same. I started by posting dance and lip sync videos.

How did you settle for this type of content?

There was this weekend I was attending Nairobi Food Festival. When I was getting ready, my sister suggested that we come up with a budget, a habit we had adapted for a while now. I told her that I will shoot a video during the event and she was okay with it. So, I shot the video, edited it and the whole time I was just in the kitchen laughing while making the voice over. I was taking it lightly because at that time I knew it was silly. I posted the content and it went viral. Most people were like, ‘eating all that food at a thousand shillings budget?’ And that is how I decided to settle on my food content.

Which video can you describe as your breakthrough?

Somehow, it’s like the universe had everything figured out for me. The next weekend, my dad decided to take us to our ushago, Gatondo, it was such a random decision. So, we planned the road trip and as I had earlier decided, I shot some content. That was the video that brought me to the lime light. From there I started posting more videos of the same. I made sure I had a post every Saturday.

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What role has consistency played in terms of your online growth?

In December, I decided to be posting every day, for the whole month. Since it was not easy to get food content for 31 days, I decided to do other content like get ready with me and the talks, the likes of ‘mimi usinikatie, nitakusema kwa manze yako.’ My account grew and that gave me the zeal to continue making more content.

Kindly address the allegations of you not finishing the food…

First of all, when I started, my Mum was buying most of my food and she was always there when I was eating. As an African child with an African mother, I did not have a choice other than finishing my food. I also come from a family where food is something they take seriously. You cannot just serve stew and chapati then sit to eat that. Whoever passes by will force you to go and fill your plate. Ebu enda uongeze mokimo, enda ueke salad, ongeza hii na hii. Eating a good amount of food in my family is not a choice and nobody judges you for that. In short, to those asking whether I finish my food, yes, I do. When I can’t manage to finish, I carry my food home and indicate on the video that I did that.

People will always find something to talk about. When I started, most of the questions were about my digestion and this has changed. So, this narrative will also change at some point. There was a whole era ya kula Ruto, na iliisha pia.

Most people usually wonder how you manage to eat that much and still have a nice figure with a flat tummy. How is that?

Genes. I will say it again, ni genes tu. People say that I am small, but I would say I look small compared to the amount of food I eat. I see myself as a chubby person, well chubby in the right places, and I have been like this since I was a baby.

What impact do you believe your content has on your fans?

As someone who has struggled with weight loss issues, there was a time I would eat little food in the name of watching my weight. I realised I am not the only one who was affected by it. Since I managed to step out and not consider my weight anytime I want to eat, I hope someone else out there is inspired by how I eat. I hope they can consume whatever amount of food they want to have without being judged or judging themselves. Nobody should be shamed for eating sensible amounts of food in them name of watanona ama wamenona. When this happens, food becomes less enjoyable. Anytime you see something tantalizing you end up thinking, ‘no I can’t have that, I will gain weight’. The whole point of my content is to cancel out shame of eating properly.

What is the most amount of food you have ever eaten in a day?

Heeh! That Gatondo video, the one that made me trend. I ate a lot of food and you can imagine there was no ego or anything. Yaani, whatever is in that video, I ate and left no crumbs. When coming back from the trip, we were all quite because of how full our stomachs were.

Favourite food…

Ugali, spinach and anything, be it fish, pork, beef, anything that comes with it.

Worst food…

I don’t like and I don’t eat mokimo, matoke and githeri. I was in boarding school since I was like 10 years old. So, my history with certain foods like beans and cabbages, anything that we were forced to eat I can’t have it as a grown up. Unless it is for content purposes, you will never find me eating such.

Best comment from a fan?

There is this lady who in boxed me saying that I made her accept her eating habits and own them. Weird enough, she is one of the few who has come out to say that her confidence when it comes to food is getting better.

Which creators inspire you?

Mummie Francie and Shon Arwa. These two are very consistent and put in so much effort. I like appreciating people’s effort and I think netizens should do the same.

Every great content creator will tell that consistency is the key to being a good creator.

Long term goal with the food content…

I want to have a community, not just a fan base. I don’t have like a fixed long-term plan. As long as my community is there, we shall cross that bridge when we get there.