Role of Language in Peace Building: a Case of Kenya’s 2008 Coalition Government

Abstract

A study on conflicts around the world found that many countries were at high risk of instability and of these, most were in Africa. Although the African continent continues to glamour for the dire need of peace, it has continued to witness political conflicts arising out of disputed elections. This has often resulted in the formation of coalition governments as a mechanism to securing peace and stability. In doing so, various conflict mechanisms such as mediation, arbitration, negotiation and peacekeeping have been employed by different bodies and/or agencies to restore peace in conflicting states of Africa. However, little attention has been paid to the use of language by the coalition leaders as a mechanism to conflict resolution and peace building. This is informed by the fact that language is the primary means to negotiate power and therefore cannot be ignored. This paper examines lexicalisation in the discourse of the two principals in the Kenyan 2008 Coalition Government negotiation for Portfolio Balance. Four written texts were purposively sampled and accessed from the official website of the former President and former Prime Minister. The study applies Fairclough’s approach of Language and Power and Social Theory anchored in Critical Discourse Analysis to tease out the lexical choices. The findings revealed that the two principals employed language that was mitigated, personalized and highly restrained in relation to hate speech. The language of political persuasion which guided citizens’ orientation and behaviour encoded respect, tolerance, optimism and reassurance for continued political support notwithstanding the underlying power struggles. Policymakers should incorporate the aspect of language in national laws and policies as a guiding principle in conflict resolution and peace building.