INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS DAY ON INTERSEX PERSONS
PRESS STATEMENT
ENACT THE BILL ON INTERSEX PERSONS – PARLIAMENT TOLD
As we mark this important awareness day the Intersex Persons this 26th October 2024, We call on our Parliament to pass the draft Intersex Persons Bill to increase the promotion and protection intersex persons who often face discrimination, harmful medical practices, violence, and social stigma solely based on their sex characteristics. While Kenya passed the law protecting intersex children and recognizing the “I” gender marker, the youth, women, men who are intersex continue to face human rights violations including exclusion from government services. The official documents in Kenya continue to demand from the intersex persons to declare they are either female or male which pushes them out of inclusion in governance and participation in development. While our religions appreciate the recognition of intersex people in their holy books, in practice, intersex period face exclusion and stigmatization in the places of worship marked for either male or female.
Kenya Community Support Centre (KECOSCE) www.kecosce.org continues to stand in solidarity with intersex persons, we remains steadfast in our commitment to promoting and protecting the dignity and human rights of intersex persons in Kenya and around the world. As we commemorate this year’s Intersex Awareness Day on 26th October, 2024, we honor the contributions intersex voices in their struggle for inclusion, equality, and dignity for all.
Although Kenya recognized the intersex persons in its 2019 census where 1524 were counted, and although the Children’s Act 2022 was enacted, government institutions have not yet adopted the additional gender marker “I” and communities continue to stigmatize intersex people. National Identification cards and passport issuing bodies force the intersex persons to conform to traditional male and female gender marker.
We call on our Parliament to pass the draft Intersex Persons Bill 2023 which has been lagging without much attention for its enactment. The law once passed will increase the promotion and protection intersex persons who often face discrimination, harmful medical practices, violence, and social stigma solely based on their sex characteristics.