Aisha Maathai/ Seven Billion Today
I am so proud to be Kenyan… so much so that I want to share this wonderful and brilliant news wit you all… so…Kenya will become the first country in Africa to collect data on intersex people in its national population census. Overall, this is a huge win for rights activists, as well as a demonstration that Kenya is progressive and accepting of all type of people, in comparison to the rest of the continent, who struggle with the concept of complex identity.
The August survey will determine the number of citizens who do not identify as either male or female.
Maybe you did not know, but intersex people in Kenya often face discrimination and violence. I was always angry about dis. I said to my Mama, why? Those human beings deserve to love and deserve to feel themselves just as much as the next woman or man. I did my research online, and I read that apparently there are supposed to be more than 700,000 of them out of a general population in Kenya of 49 million.
I was proud and elated to read this statement: “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 said.Great news, everyone!