Current Institutional Affiliation
Tutorial Fellow, Department of Literature, Linguistics and Foreign Languages, Kenyatta University

Award Information

Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa: Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship 2017
Institutional Affiliation (at time of award):
English and Linguistics, Kenyatta University
Language, Gender and Power: The Discursive Construction of the Kenya National Assemby Politician

This study critically analyses language in relation to gender and power in Kenya. Language plays a role in shaping power relations in society through its ideological workings. These ideologies emanate from the power of language to discursively construct identities and in this case, political identities. The discursive nature of language privileges the status and positions of some people over others leading to the creation of social inequalities. The problem of this study is that, language might be responsible for the creation of gender imbalances in Kenya's elective politics, hence the biased gender representation in the Kenya National Assembly. The research site will be Nairobi County of Kenya. The study will adopt the principle of triangulation within a survey research design. This involves approaching the same question from different data sources, in order to increase the validity of the findings. The data sources will be document reviews, interviews and questionnaires.

Menu