For the first time ever, Kenya will include intersex people in its census.
Citizens of the East African country will be able to choose between male, female and intersex for this year’s census, reports BBC. An estimated 700,000 intersex people live in Kenya.
Intersex is a term used to describe people who are born “with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit the typical definitions of female or male,” according to Planned Parenthood. If doctors cannot determine a child’s sex on sight, some parents allow medically unnecessary surgery so a binary sex can be assigned. It is not uncommon for intersex children to grow up and identify as a different gender than the one they were assigned.
Ryan Muiruri, founder of the Intersex Persons Society of Kenya (IPSK), considers this new development a victory.
"Getting information about intersex people in the census will help people understand the challenges we go through," he said. "Being included in the census is a big achievement for us."
Kenya has been working on including intersex people since 2009, when a mother had to go to court so her five-year-old child could receive a birth certificate. The concerned parent also asked for a law to prevent intersex surgeries and resources for parents of intersex children. The courts ruled in her favor and issued the birth certificate in 2014. The court order also demanded the establishment of a taskforce to assist intersex people.
Intersex people often face discrimination in Kenya. In an op-ed for BBC, Muiruri described troubling encounters he had with other people who didn’t understand intersexuality. The first instance of discrimination came from his parents.
“My parents didn't accept me and went to the witchdoctor because they wanted to correct what most people saw as a curse,” he wrote. “People would tease my mum about my identity, and I would often see her crying.”
According to an interview he did with VOA, his father left because he was ashamed of Muiruri.
As he grew up, Muiruri became the target of children who demanded he undressed to determine his sex. He was also followed into bathrooms. When he became an adult, he was forced to undress again after a bank teller called the police on him for “impersonation.”
The bigotry traumatized Muiruri.
“I tried to take my life five times because I felt alone and rejected,” he continued.
He survived and founded IPSK to “to help people like me.” As of 2018, the IPSK had 200 members, 138 of them children under the age of 13.
Kenya will be the second country, after South Africa, to include intersex people in their census. The data collection will begin in August.