Richard Muasya in Kenya: Lifelong intersex exclusion leads to the inevitable, exclusion from the means to live, then jail, rape, violence and yet more exclusion

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OII-Kenya affiliate lawyer John Chigiti represents a number of intersex Kenyans in matters of the law in that country, despite statements made during the recent trial of Kenyan intersex person Richard Muasya that there are no intersex people in Kenya and therefore no need to include them in the legislation of that nation.

Mr Muasya’s petition includes a long list of areas where intersex Kenyans are excluded from the law and from human rights that non-intersex people expect to be granted to themselves. The list makes for sad, sobering reading.

Richard Muasya and other intersex people in Kenya are rendered outlaw by their exclusion from the law in that country.

According to Australian geneticist Peter Koopman, ‘intersexuals [sic] may be surprisingly common. “About four per cent of live births are affected by these disorders [sic], which can result in infertility, genital abnormalities, gender mis-assignment and long-term psychological trauma.”‘

Republic of Kenya in the High Court of Kenya at Nairobi (Nairobi Law Courts): Petition 705 of 2007 – click to download this PDF.” width=”520″ height=”736″ />