- The group says they are yet to be guaranteed equal treatment and access to government services despite being recognised as the third gender.
- Those who spoke to journalists said health policy formulators are yet to make adjustments even on the birth forms to have space for children born different.
Intersex people want more reforms effected to expand their fundamental freedoms and rights.
The group says they have yet to be guaranteed equal treatment and access to government services.
Stigma, they said, continues to dog them, hence the need for awareness campaigns so that Kenyans can know more about them.
An intersex is a person born with unclear sexual characteristics, according to a task force report on policy, legal, institutional and administrative reforms in Kenya.
Those who spoke to journalists said health policy formulators have yet to make adjustments even on the birth forms to have space for children born different.
The country’s intersex population stands at 1,524, according to the 2019 census. Kisii has 38 people emerging 7th overall in the national statistics.
During a one-day forum at a Kisii hotel, the members lamented the lack of access to education and even loans to help improve their lives.
Marlyne spoke of stigmatisation and sceptical society. She is at a loss if the intersex are still people in the typical sense of the definition.
“Stigma just runs and chases us wherever we are. I, however, believe with more sensitisation, things would be different,” Marlyne said.
Marlyne wants to pursue a course in nursing but is fearful of the prospects of how the situation would be treated at the medical school.
“I fear they would force a dress on me when it wouldn’t just fit.”
Marlyne's mother who had accompanied her child spoke of harrowing tales in raising a child born different.
“People, even the closes friends, tell me I am jinxed for having a child born this way. It can get worse especially when dealing with people in the villages who view you this way,” she told the Star.
Other intersex members spoke of the need for a special education system that caters for them while others called for a revised syllabus to enable young Kenyans growing up to have a proper understanding of intersex people.
Judy, another intersex person, spoke of frustrating bids to access government services.
They said the police who are supposed to protect them sometimes harass them.
“We still have senior government officers unaware of our existence. When we visit their offices, some senior civil servants are at loss on how to deal with us and this is among the many challenges we need to overcome,” Judy said.
The forum in Kisii was organised by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. The event was meant to create awareness and disseminate the Intersex Taskforce Report findings.
Separately, Gloria, also an intersex said they had a long journey to self-discovery.
Today she feels more like a man and even wants to settle down and have a family.
They discourage corrective surgery for the intersex, saying it engenders more confusion in later years among those who have both male and female organs.
“I think those born like this should be left as they are so that they are not thrown into identity crisis later. More often the corrective surgeries end up removing the dominant gender from the person,” Gloria said.
KNCHR regional coordinator Jacqueline Ingutiah said while there was an ongoing conversation about the intersex, there is still more to be done.
Ingutiah asked chiefs to sensitise people at the grassroots of the existence of such people as part of the efforts to stem stigma.