Compliance With Grice’s Conversational Maxims by Two Deputy Presidential Candidates During the 2022 Kenyan Deputy Presidential Debate

Abstract

Language plays a pivotal role in advancing political agenda. There are varied ways through which such agenda are propagated one of them being debate. Debates generally and televised ones specifically, fulfill a valuable democratic function by enabling voters to evaluate potential leaders and their policies. In Kenya, these televised debates have become an integral part of democratic dialogue, determining how citizens judge integrity, governance models and preparedness to rule. This study sought to examine how the deputy presidential candidates adhered to Grice’s conversational maxims during the 2022 Kenyan Deputy Presidential Debate. The intention of this study was to contribute to discourse studies by bringing to the fore how actors in the political arena use language as a tactical tool in momentous electoral communication, and to foster a more profound intellectual grasp of the connection between pragmatics, and ideology in Kenyan political debates. The study was guided by Fairclough’s Dialectical Relational Approach (hereafter DRA) (1992, 2001) and Grice’s (1975) Cooperative Principle. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model was crucial because it provided an in-depth understanding on the structure of the discourse while Grice’s maxims gauged whether the parameters within which conversations should be carried out to ensure effective communication are adhered to. The study adopted a qualitative descriptive design and through purposive sampling excerpts from the debate were selected. The study revealed that candidates adhered to the maxims of Quality, Quantity, Relevance and Manner.