Perceptions in Uhuru-Raila 9th March, 2018 handshake discourse in Kenya’s print media

Abstract

In Kenya, the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Orange Democratic Movement (henceforth referred to as ODM) leader, Raila Odinga, on 9th March, 2018 elicited diverse discourse on the phenomenon. The print media was replete with the discourse on the Uhuru-Raila handshake. This particular handshake ostensibly surpassed the traditional social purview of handshakes as polite greetings. Its conceptualization by Kenyans definitely eluded the precinct of handshakes as greeting occurrences hence the extensive discourse on it. The purpose of the paper was to evaluate the effect of the handshake on the perception of Kenyans by undertaking an analysis of the handshake discourse in Kenya‘s print media. The study was guided by Systemic Functional Grammar theory by Halliday (1975). The study adopted analytical research design and data was qualitatively analysed as per the tenets of the aforementioned theory. The study concluded that the Uhuru-Raila handshake had significant influence on the perception of Kenyans on socio-economic and political issues in the country.