Audrey mbugua biography

Mbugua is a male-to-female transgender woman born in Central Kenya.
Audrey Ithibu Mbugua is the epitome of the prolonged search for true self.
Audrey Mbugua is a Kenyan transgender activist who has successfully litigated a number of court cases defending the rights of transgender people.

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PROFILE-Kenya's transgender warrior: from suicide bid to celebrity

When Audrey Mbugua sought help, a healthworker took her hands and prayed for her to be freed from the devil

By Katy Migiro

NAIROBI, April 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Audrey Mbugua will not say whether it was a razor blade, pills or carbon monoxide that she used to try to kill herself.

Born a male in Kenya and given the name Andrew, she felt trapped in the wrong body and started dressing in women's clothes while at university, attracting ridicule and rejection. After graduation, Mbugua was jobless, penniless and alone.

"I thought the best way was to end it all," she recalled six years later, sitting in her leafy garden in Kiambu, 20 km (12 miles) from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

"I didn't have any hope. I didn't have friends I could talk to. My family had deserted me," said the slim 31-year-old, who wears glasses and her hair long.

Experts say up to 1 percent of the world's population are transgender - men and women who feel they have been born with the wrong body and the wrong gender.

When Mbugua soug

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Audrey Mbugua asks court to delete Andrew from her KCSE certificate

Audrey Mbugua has received favour from a judge in her quest to change the name in her KCSE certificate.

Justice Weldon Korir has allowed Audrey to file her arguments as the transgender seeks to have the Kenya National Examinations Council change her name on her certificate.

Audrey, who was born as Andrew Mbugua, wants the high court to recognise her new gender.

Justice Weldon Korir has asked Audrey to file her submissions in two weeks, which the Attorney General should respond to before hearing.

Audrey hit headlines last year after claiming she was born male, seven years after completing high school.

She was treated at Mathari Hospital but she changed her name to match her new gender and began the process to change her national ID as well.

In October, the Kenya Christian Lawyers Fellowship told Justice George Odunga that Audrey Mbugua had not shown medical evidence that she is of transgender status.

They instead claimed that Audrey suffers from a treatable condition known as ‘Gender Identity D

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