Kenya will for the first time collect data on intersex people in its national population census, in a major victory for rights activists.

The August survey will determine the number of citizens who do not identify as either male or female.

Intersex people often face violence and discrimination in the socially conservative country.

There are thought to be more than 700,000 intersex people in Kenya out of a general population of 49 million.

“Getting information about intersex people in the census will help people understand the challenges we go through,” Ruth Ryan Muiruri, founder of the Intersex Persons Society of Kenya (IPSK), said as she welcomed the government’s decision.

“Being included in the census is a big achievement for us,” she told the BBC.

What is the background?

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

She wanted three things: identity documents for her child 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.

In a landmark ruling in 2014, the High Court ordered the government to issue a birth certificate to the five-year-old child.

In addition, it ordered the attorney general to create a task force that would look at ways of providing better support for intersex children.

That task force handed its recommendations to the Attorney General in April. They include delaying surgery until children can choose for themselves and a robust survey on numbers.

It also recommended that an I-marker, an intersex identifier, be used in public documentation.

Intersex

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‘They wanted to know if I squat or stand’

Ruth Ryan Muiruri, IPSK founder, speaking to BBC

I was born an intersex but assigned a female identity. My parents didn’t accept me and went to the witchdoctor because they wanted to correct what most people saw as a curse.

People would tease my mum about my identity, and I would often see her crying.

I knew I was different when I was five.

One day when I was playing with other children, one of them called me a girl and another said: “Who told you Ruth is a girl.”

They went ahead to undress me.

In school, every time I went to the toilet people would follow me to see if I stand or squat. It was so embarrassing and extremely uncomfortable.

One thing that hurt me the most is being called “a curse” by a village elder and being blamed for a drought that had hit our region.

I tried to take my life five times because I felt alone and rejected.

One day I was in a bank to do a transaction, the teller called the police instead accusing me of impersonation. I tried to explain my situation to them but they didn’t understand.

It’s only after I undressed that they believed me and allowed me to do the transaction.

I started the Intersex Persons Society of Kenya to help people like me.

Being included in the national population census is a big achievement for us.

An intersex timeline

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