Gov’t to Count Kenyan Intersex Community in Next Month’s Population Census

The government is set to collect data on intersex people during the national population census scheduled for next month, making Kenya the first country in the continent to do so.

For the first time in the country’s history, the decennial survey will determine the number of Kenyan citizens who do not classify themselves as either male or female, according to BBC.

The move is set to be a major victory for rights activists who have been on the forefront calling for equal treatment of intersex people, who face violence and discrimination in Kenya.

Unofficial data quote the number of intersex people in Kenya at over 700,000 out of the about 49 million Kenyans.

"Getting information about intersex people in the census will help people understand the challenges we go through," Ryan Muiruri, founder of the Intersex Persons Society of Kenya (IPSK), told the BBC as he welcomed the government's decision.

"Being included in the census is a big achievement for us," he added.

In 2009, a Kenyan woman moved to court after doctors wrote a question mark instead of gender on her child's birth papers.

In her suit, the woman sought to get identity documents for her kid to be able to attend school, a law preventing surgery on intersex children unless it is medically necessary and proper information and psychological support for parents with such children.

The High Court, in a landmark ruling in 2014, ordered the government to issue a birth certificate to the five-year-old child. The court also ordered the Attorney-General to create a task force that would look at ways of providing better support for intersex children.

In its report to the Attorney-General in April, the task force recommended delaying surgery until children can choose for themselves and a robust survey on numbers. It also suggested that an I-marker, an intersex identifier, be used in public documentation.

The census, which will be carried out electronically on August 24th and 25th, will be Kenya's first-ever paperless population tally.