Legitimation and Leadership Communication During Crisis: A Case Study of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Political Speeches on the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic harmed millions of Kenyans and created a social and political crisis necessitating interventionist approaches by the government. This article examines the discursive strategies of legitimation embedded in Kenya’s public policy initiatives to contain the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic. This article examines the discursive strategies of legitimation in Kenya’s public policy initiatives to contain the spread of COVID-19. Using Van Leeuwen’s legitimation strategies and Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Approach to Critical Discourse Analysis, this paper examines the legitimation strategies in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speeches on managing COVID-19, as well as the linguistic and rhetorical means through which such strategies were realized in discourse. Drawing on speeches made by Uhuru Kenyatta, this paper demonstrates how engagement strategies are linguistically and rhetorically constituted and fashioned to justify given policy proposals and actions for containing the spread of the Coronavirus. Moreover, the study uncovers how leaders use language to evoke historical memories and legitimize authority.