  We estimate the magnetic moment of electron neutrinos by computing the
neutrino chirality flip rate that can occur in the core of a strange quark
matter neutron star at birth. We show that this process allows neutrinos to
anisotropically escape, thus inducing the star kick velocity. Although the flip
from left- to right-handed neutrinos is assumed to happen in equilibrium, the
no-go theorem does not apply because right-handed neutrinos do not interact
with matter and the reverse process does not happen, producing the loss of
detailed balance. For simplicity, we model the star core as consisting of
strange quark matter. We find that even when the energy released in
right-handed neutrinos is a small fraction of the total energy released in
left-handed neutrinos, the process describes kick velocities for natal
conditions, which are consistent with the observed ones and span the correct
range of radii, temperatures and chemical potentials for typical magnetic field
intensities. The neutrino magnetic moment is estimated to be $\mu_\nu \sim 3.6
\times 10^{-18}\mu_B$, where $\mu_B$ is the Bohr magneton. This value is more
stringent than the bound found for massive neutrinos in a minimal extension of
the \mbox{standard model.}
