Engaging Meru county government officials
Press briefing of the county government gender sensitization by Jinsiangu - February 2022
Information penetration about Intersex, Transgender communities is low among rural regions of Kenya. This due to a myriad of factors such as language barriers, low exposure to concepts such as gender identity mostly encountered in urban areas, to missing cultural context in relation to the aforementioned communities.
Meru county has been one of the counties in Kenya in the past scoring low on engagement of intersex & transgender community issues. As part of our multi-tiered efforts towards addressing structural issues in the country, we engaged various departments and officials within the county government of Meru such as the ministry of education, gender, health and police service for a two day sensitization . These being the core focus areas of advocacy for the intersex and transgender community in Kenya, the stakeholders within the county government were key to pioneering changes within culture, medical practice and education for Meru county.
During our engagement, issues of Intersex genital Mutilation arose as it’s still practiced in the county as stated by the chief health officer at the meeting. The doctors in Meru were not yet educated on the dangers/ risks the practice poses on the general well-being of the intersex children and later in their adult lives. The idealized notion that choosing an intersex child’s gender/sex path through surgical interventions is one of the most damaging narratives that exist within the healthcare system. Our engagement sought to uproot such notions and steer policy reforms towards an informed standard of practice in engaging intersex children within Meru county. Majority of the stakeholders reported not having encountered conversations or information regarding transgender people in the county and were perplexed that persons of such experiences existed in Meru county, let alone Kenya as a country.
The director of the gender department in Meru county reported that she has in her office, ongoing cases of mistreatment of intersex pupils in schools, that she intends to address with the guidance of Jinsiangu in formulating guidelines to improve conditions for students/pupils in schools that may involve having a special sensitization packaged specifically for the ministry and involved stakeholders .
Speeches at the Meru county sensitization in February 2022 by Jinsiangu
As information on gender identity and sex remains low in such regions, these types of engagements are paramount to steering county conversations on policies/guidelines reforms that start the inclusion process of Intersex, Transgender & Gender Non-Conforming persons within various county processes.
Catch the press release of the engagement here: The county | Home of county news and the video below.