By Brian Okoth
An American YouTuber released a video on November 4 claiming that he drilled at least 40 boreholes in Kenya in several months.
Mr Beast, whose real name is James Stephen Donaldson, uploaded the video to his YouTube page that has more than 207 million subscribers, highlighting the construction of the boreholes.
The 25-year-old claimed that during his mission to Africa, he built 100 boreholes in different countries, including Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Somalia, and Cameroon. He said the facilities would provide clean water to more than 500,000 people.
In Kenya, some of the borehole projects were in Meru County, some 225 kilometres northeast of the capital Nairobi, and in Elgeyo Marakwet County, some 390 kilometres northwest of the Kenyan capital.
'Wake-up call'
In Zimbabwe, Mr Beast said he sunk boreholes at Tongogara rural district, some 280 kilometres southwest of the capital Harare.
In Kenya, his stage name 'Mr Beast' was the topmost trend on X, formerly known as Twitter, with at least 72,500 tweets linked to it.
The social media users said that the foreigner managed to "do the work" of the elected leaders despite having limited time during his tour to Africa.
Social and political activist Boniface Mwangi told TRT Afrika that Mr Beast's acts of philanthropy served as a "wake-up call" for leaders who take their voters for granted.
"His actions have shown that when you do something good, especially for the needy and vulnerable, it never goes unnoticed," Mwangi said on Sunday.
'I'm going to get cancelled'
Isaac Mwaura, the Kenyan government's spokesperson, told TRT Afrika that he "needed time to verify Mr Beast's claims."
"I am not aware about his acts. I need time to verify how true his claims are," Mwaura said on Sunday.
Though Mr Beast showed videos of him sinking boreholes at schools, polytechnics and other social institutions in Kenya and Zimbabwe, TRT Afrika could not independently verify the number of constructed boreholes, or the financier of the projects.
"I already know I’m gonna get cancelled because I uploaded a video helping people, and to be 100% clear, I don’t care. I'm always going to use my channel to help people and try to inspire my audience to do the same," he said on X at 7:30pm on Sunday.
Second-highest followed YouTube account
According to Forbes, Mr Beast, who has 207 million followers, has the second-highest number of YouTube followers behind India's largest music label and movie studio T-Series, which has 252 million subscribers.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Mr Beast, who is also a philanthropist and entrepreneur, had a net worth of $100 million as of August 2023.
The YouTube star, who was born on May 7, 1998, grew up in eastern North Carolina in the city of Greenville. In 2016, he graduated from Greenville Christian Academy, a private high school.
He began his YouTube career posting videos under the username "MrBeast6000."
Early content
His early content included funny compilations, estimating YouTubers' wealth, offering tricks and tips to aspiring content creators, and commenting on YouTube drama.
Mr Beast started to gain a following in 2016, thanks to his "worst intros" series of videos. In the videos, he poked fun at YouTube introductions. He hit 30,000 subscribers by mid-2016.
Later that year, he enrolled in college, but lasted only two weeks before he dropped out. He said that he told his mother: "I'd rather be poor than do anything besides YouTube."
His mother made him move out of his childhood home in North Carolina at 18. "She loves me, and just wanted me to be successful," Mr Beast later said.
Employs childhood friends
He'd later go viral with videos showing him counting large sums of money. He also video-taped himself taking part in lengthy challenges such as watching videos for ten straight hours.
As his YouTube channel grew, thanks to his daring challenges, he hired his childhood friends Chris, Chandler, Garret, and Jake to work for him.
He also runs the Beast Philanthropy, which has "a goal of making the world a better place."
"As a 501(c)3 organization, Beast Philanthropy exists to leverage the power of social media platforms and raise funds to alleviate hunger, homelessness, and unemployment," the foundation says on its website.
