Father ready to sell a kidney to save his son

Kennedy Kagoni, 39, is a desperate man who needs to raise Sh650,000 by the end of the year if his son is to have a chance at a normal future.

His nine-year-old son Wesley was born with both male and female organs, a fact that has haunted his family since his birth.

“We had never heard of or seen anything like this,” said the father of two, absent-mindedly clutching both of his son’s small hands.

Nestling deep within the folds of an empty scrotum — empty because Wesley was born without testes, the glands that produce sperm — was something akin to a tiny male organ that curved backwards, making it impossible for him to pass urine like other boys.

Strange wound

But what shocked his father even more was the “strange wound” underneath his son’s abnormal penis, which would at times leak some fluid.

“When he was three days old, we decided to take him to Kenyatta National Hospital where he was identified as male,” Mr Kagoni said.

Dissatisfied with the diagnosis but at a loss as to whom or where to turn, he and his wife returned home.

About three years later, they took Wesley to a private hospital when they observed fluid leaking from two openings around his genital area. This time round, they were informed that their child was actually a girl.

Mr Kagoni said this diagnosis confused them even more. “I have never felt as hopeless and as useless as I did then. What kind of father doesn’t know whether he has a son or a daughter?” he asked.

No one told them that their son was suffering from a genetic disorder known as intersexuality, or Disorder of Sex Development.

Living with his son’s misunderstood condition has been difficult and painful, and it was compounded when his wife abandoned him and their two children three years ago to marry someone else.

But he said the stigma his son has had to endure on a daily basis is what crushes him.

“When he was about five, older boys in his former school tried to rape him, but he managed to get away,” Mr Kagoni said with an anguished look on his face.

Scream and run away

From then on, Wesley could not bring himself to use the boys’ toilets, fearing that the same gang would try to sexually harass him. He started using the girls’ toilets instead, but they would all scream and run away from him.

Even teachers, who should have known better, were openly hostile, which encouraged his classmates to shun him even more.

As a result, Wesley, a Class Four pupil, has been in and out of six different schools in the last four years in his father’s search for one that will accept him regardless of his condition.

“I had to send him and his sister upcountry to live with my mother in the hope that the people there would be more tolerant and accepting of him,” he said.

So far, Wesley seems settled at his new school and for the first time in many years is living a somewhat normal life. But his father is far from settled.

“My son will never have a normal life as long as his condition is not corrected, but I don’t have the money to pay for the surgery,” he said.

Mr Kagoni is a casual labourer, and many are the days he goes back to his single room in Soweto, Kibera, empty-handed. That is why this father is willing to sell one of his kidney’s “in exchange for some money” to pay for his son’s medical expenses.

Last September, Mr Kagoni heard about a visiting specialist from America who was performing corrective surgery at Kijabe Mission Hospital. When he approached the hospital, he was charged Sh195,000 for the first phase of the procedure, which a well-wisher paid.

The second phase was due in March this year, but Wesley missed it because his father was unable to raise the money required.

“The doctor is expected back in the country by the end of the year. I hope that this time round, I will manage to raise the money needed to facilitate my son’s medical fees.”

The last two phases will cost him approximately Sh650,000.

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you want to provide assistance to the family, please send your contact details to [email protected]