Exclusion of Intersex People: A Systemic Conundrum

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09/30/2022

John Karanja attempted suicide three times before realising that his life, after all, had meaning. Karanja, who was born Dorcas Wangui in 1993, did not notice his body was different until he was eleven years old when he began puberty. However, in order to understand Karanja’s journey, we must first understand Dorcas Wangui. Wangui was born and raised in Gatundu South, the last of 12 siblings. The attending physician observed that the new-born possessed both female and male genitalia. He assured the parents that the child’s visible male genitalia would “disappear” as she approached puberty. The doctor was describing some of the characteristics of an intersex person. The report of the Taskforce on Policy, Legal, Institutional and Administrative Reforms on Intersex Persons in Kenya describes intersex persons as those who have ambiguous genitalia, both internal and external, and do not fit into the binary categories of male or female.

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