For more than 20 years, she lived as a woman. However, today, the person once known as Beatrice Waweru has embraced a new identity, one that reflects who he truly is.

Beatrice was born intersex. At birth, her mother decided to raise her as a girl believing if she was raised, a girl she will have a normal life because girls have the privacy and no one will know she was different.

”I was raised as Beatrice. They raised me as a girl so they can hide the ‘shame’ because my mum was being humiliated so much,” she says.

She also says her appearance was a major factor that made her mother believe her baby was a girl rather than a boy.

As a child, nothing seemed unusual until she began to notice that her body was not like that of other girls. Confused, she turned to her grandmother, the only person she felt close to. Her mother had grown distant, harboring resentment rooted in cultural beliefs that intersex children are a curse. At first, her grandmother reassured her that everything was normal.

”I asked why do I look different? But she kept on saying everything was normal, still I felt different. I was feeling it from inside.”

By Class Six, during a science lesson on Human Reproduction, the differences could no longer be ignored. Nothing in the textbook reflected her own reality. Returning to her grandmother for answers, she finally heard the truth: she had been born intersex.

”When I went back that is when she admitted, she told me I was an Intersex,” Levvy says.

Even with this knowledge, Beatrice tried to live like other girls. But in high school, the changes in her body became impossible to ignore. At 14, her voice deepened, her shoulders broadened, her periods never came, and her breasts barely developed. She also discovered her attraction to girls and her love of soccer differences that further isolated her.

She says, her development was not like other girls a situation that triggered her ”for you to be a girl there are things you could expect, maybe the periods, big breasts but for me I never received my menses, I barely had breasts.”

The challenges were not only physical. At just eight years old, she had been sexually molested by older girls who knew about her condition.

”I was so disturbed because I did not know myself yet,” he explains.

Unfortunately at this time she had no one to turn to, her mother had moved to the city and her grandmother had passed away. The pain was so overwhelming that she even considered taking her
own life.

”After I went to live with my Mum, all hell broke loose, it was bad. My mother never loved but she loved my sisters. She could even tell me I cannot stay with someone who does not know who she is. She does not even know if you are a man or a woman. I have three sisters they also did not love me.

Even with this, there was hope; she made a decision to live and tell the story of the challenges that face intersex persons in the society. She started going to counseling; this sessions helped her confront years of confusion and trauma.

More importantly, Beatrice found the courage to begin living as she felt inside, not as Beatrice, but as a man. At 23, she began the transition. With hormonal treatment, her body grew more masculine, aligning with the identity she had always felt. 

But the change brought new obstacles: her physical appearance no longer matched the name and photo on her national ID.

“The way people looked at me was different. My documents said Beatrice, but I no longer looked like her,” he says.

Finally, after a long struggle she was able to change her identity to Levvy Blessing. But this did not come easy; it meant navigating endless government offices to change his name and identity. He was now Levvy Blessing, legally recognized as intersex.

This milestone coincided with a growing national conversation on the rights of intersex persons.

The Intersex Persons Bill 2023, currently under public scrutiny, seeks to introduce intersex as a third gender marker in Kenya. Introduced by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), the bill aims to provide recognition, protection, and safeguard the human rights of intersex persons. Levvy sees it as a step in the right direction, but not the end of the fight. 

“I will continue advocating for the recognition of intersex persons in Kenya,” he says. Even with this, a number of people do not understand who the intersex persons are. 

I spoke to Doctor Denis Miskella who explains that – It is crucial to understand the distinction; he says being intersex refers to a range of natural variations in which a person is born with sex characteristics for example (chromosomes, gonads, hormones, or anatomy) that don’t fit typical binary notions of male or female. 

”In the context of nature in itself, there is the male and female but then again there is the third one called Intersex. Our bodies are not like computers that they are black or white. There is a spectrum of changes that can occur in your body.” he explains.

He explains that it is a biological reality present and that it is not an abnormality.

 ”For along time Intersex persons have been referred as disorders of sexual developments but now we say no, it is not a disorder they are just intersex,” he says.

Dr. Miskella says if a person is born intersex, it is important first to make them understand what is going on with their body and why it does not fit in the gender male or female. This he says will help them to appreciative more who they are.

”Based on what a doctor can examine that is when you can assign a baby at birth, but if there are any issues it is good to let the baby grow up first,” he says.

He also discourages very early treatments including surgeries to correct the situation. According to him, children born intersex should be given a change to grow and make they own decisions when they are ready and putting in mind of what they want.

”As doctors when we identify it at birth we are able to tell the mother their is nothing wrong with your baby. We are trying to discourage this sex orientation surgeries for underage people who cannot concept. Can you imagine if they assigned you as a girl, and they cut of the penis but when you turn into an adolescent you turn it to a boy and the organs were mutilated or they told you you are a boy then you start menusturating,” the doctor explains.

Now married, Levvy believes one day God will bless him and his wife with a child so he can have a normal family like anyone else. But someone may ask, are intersex persons able to procreate? We posed this question to Doctor. Miskella.

”Based on how severe the situation is some can concieve. To concive you only need the penis and the testis or the womb and the fallopian tubes, and properly  but there are some where the situation is so messed up but they cannot,” he says.

Another head-scratching question that we sought an anser from Dr. Misikellah is the confusion that there is between the intersex people and other groups like the transgender of the LGBTQI community.

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”Being transgender, refers to a person whose gender identity (their internal sense of being male, female, both, neither, or somewhere else along the gender spectrum) differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.” he explains

In the meantime, Levvy vows to keep raising his voice for others who are still silenced by stigma.

”I will continue speaking up and I will tell other intersex people not to be afraid. They should come out and speak about it more.”

Records from the 2019 census reported 1,524 intersex persons in Kenya, though experts believe the number is much higher. Many, out of fear of discrimination, remain hidden. “People need to be sensitized,” says Levvy’s pastor Pintus Wonders. “Intersex persons are human beings like anyone else. God created them the way they are, and society must accept them.”

Levvy Blessing’s journey from rejection, confusion, and pain to acceptance and recognition, is not just his own. It mirrors the struggles of many intersex Kenyans still waiting to be seen, heard, and
respected.