Beverly Achieng

Interpreting Political Discourse: a Case of Political Talk in Kenya Beverly Achieng

Politicians have enjoyed relatively fair freedom of expression since the re-introduction of multiparty politics in Kenya in 1992. This has led to a great deal of verbal attack and exchanges between opposing sides as often captured by various media. This study investigates politicians' talk, how they manipulate language to communicate and the kinds of meanings that audiences construct for this political discourse. It is emphasized that for discourse to mean and consequently function as it is expected to, consideration of the context in terms of participants, setting, historical and/or political background knowledge is essential.