In 2009, a special baby was born. A baby who five years later, would help set a precedent in Kenyan law.

Baby A, as the baby was referred to in court documents, was different. Baby A fell into the category of babies who can neither be classified as male or female. Babies who make up between 0.05 to 1.7 per cent of the global population, according to United Nations estimates. These babies are referred to as intersex, because they are born without biological sex features that would give them a distinct identity as male or female. If you ask the question: “Is it a boy or girl?” there will be hesitation as it is not clear.

Sex (whether you are male or female) is a function of biology. It is visible in your genitals and your reproductive glands (ovaries for women and testes for men), and evident in your hormones (women have higher levels of oestrogen and progesterone and lower levels of testosterone, while men have higher levels of testosterone and lower levels of oestrogen).

Sex is also evident in the chromosomes (with women having XX and men having XY).

Most humans fall within this binary, but some don’t. Some people are born with a combination of female and male features (whether physical, hormonal or genetic); some have features that cannot be categorised as wholly male or wholly female. Many forms of intersex (for instance ambiguous genitals) are detected at birth, but others may only become evident during puberty, when sex hormones drive the development of male or female characteristics. Read more via Daily Nation