Kenyan authorities will include an intersex category, along with 'male' and 'female' in the gender section in next month's census, an official from the statistics bureau has said.

It will form part of the efforts to gather data on the number of intersex people in the country. The census is expected to take place between August 24-30. Intersex is a biological condition where children are born either with the two sex organs (male and female) or one visible organ while the other is either hidden, malformed or deformed but present.

In 2014, the High Court ordered the state to conduct a countrywide census of intersex people. The case had centered on 'Baby A' who was born with both male and female genitalia. The child's mother went to court to seek legal recognition and protection.

The High Court declared that every Kenyan has a human right to have identity documents that denote gender. The conventional markers are M for male and F for female.

A special task force set up by the government to look into the interests of intersex persons and identify reforms required to respect and protect their rights as Kenyans affected has already presented its report.