Abstract:
Words have power to control human thoughts and behaviour. In a country like Kenya which has
experienced election-related conflict since 1992, with the exception of 2013, various lexical choices, especially
by the political class, have had varying implications to the electorate. The paper analyzed the lexico-pragmatic
processes of interpreting the term peace employed in the 2013 presidential campaign speeches. The objective of
the study was to establish the relevance of the concept peace employed in conflict management in the 2013
Kenyan presidential campaign speeches to the residents of Tarakwa in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Four
presidential campaign speeches of 2013 with the content of peace were purposively sampled and reviewed by
focus group discussion participants. Using analytical research design, data was interpreted qualitatively within
the precincts of Dan Sperber and Dierdre Wilson (1995) relevance theory. The results reveal that the concept
peace was narrowed to denote the need to desist from violence during the 2013 elections. At the same time, the
concept peace was broadened and equated to love, unity, individual development and freedom. Looked at this
way, the participants had expectations that the 2013 elections would be peaceful. However, they also
abandoned these expectations because peace also denoted campaigning for oneself, celebrating victory in
advance and making peace dependent on a candidate’s victory. Thus, the concept peace employed in the
presidential campaign speeches in regard to conflict management was relevant in some ways and irrelevant in
others.
