Creation of Identities in Political Conflict: Kenya’s Newspaper Discourse

Abstract

This article looks into the construction of political identities in the discourse of two Kenyan newspaper headline stories covering the period of the Kenyan Coalition Government formed in 2008 to stem political conflict that arose after the disputed elections of 2007.It focuses on the two principals of the coalition government, President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Using a Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA) approach, the study analyses newspaper headline stories of the two leading newspapers in Kenya, Daily Nation and The Standard to gauge how the newspapers created identities for the two principals in the context of the political situation that existed then. The Prime Minister (PM) Raila Odinga is seen as a hero but also a victim of political forces. He is also evaluated as a peacemaker who quells conflicts brought about by his co-principal. President Kibaki, on the hand is depicted as an opportunist, anti-reformist and an ineffective leader. The newspapers exploit discourse strategies such as evaluative lexicon, structuring, schematic form and metaphor to create the identities and to persuade the audience to adopt a certain ideological stance.