The Intersex Persons’ Society of Kenya (IPSK) is calling on the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to speed up investigations into the murder of a 50-year-old intersex woman in Cherang’any, Trans Nzoia county.
The intersex person who went by a female name was last seen by her neighbours on the morning of May 4 and was later found half-naked and dead by the roadside at around 9 pm.
She was suspected to have been raped and then killed.
IPSK, through a statement condemning her death, asked intersex persons to continue to be united in the face of this tragedy.
“IPSK wants to highlight the importance of continuing to be unified and not going out alone,” they said.
“Our society is collectively responsible for every death in the intersex community and we must continue to demand to be recognised, to be protected and have these crimes against our community eradicated,” they added.
They said that intersex persons have been facing stigma, discrimination and exclusion across the country and continue to face overt human rights violations.
“Structural challenges rooted in intersex phobia belief systems continue to provide an inhumane and unsafe environment and society for intersex persons in Kenya to exist,” they lamented.
They added that systems and discriminating laws that do not provide easier access to registration, identification of documents and protection from violence by law enforcement continue to affect both intersex children and adults.
The victim, they said, had parents, family members, friends and community members.
“She deserved to live, thrive and be prosperous in this world as does every intersex person. We demand the DCI investigate and bring the culprits to book,” they concluded.
