Language is vital in communication between people. They understand each other through shared knowledge between the speaker and the hearer. It is a major mechanism within the process of social construction, seen as an instrument for consolidating, manipulating concepts, seek attention, create relationships in the area of power, and use it as tool to control the society. Anchored in Critical Discourse Analysis theoretically, this study shed light on the crucial use of language in the society. The study sought to explain specific linguistic ways in which language is used to represent an instrument of control and manifest symbolic power in the Kenya’s Building Bridges initiative speeches. The study developed and proposed various strategies of (de) legitimization employed by political leaders in Kenya to justify their course of action regarding the Building Bridges initiative. Qualitative research methodology was used in this study, of which the descriptive survey method was employed for the analysis of data. You Tube videos of speeches made by specific political actors regarding the Building Bridges Initiative since November 2019 to 2021 were purposively sampled, transcribed and analyzed in their written form. The study established that strategies used by politicians in (de)legitimizing BBI were; authorization, rationalization, moral evaluation, and mythopoeic. This paper is important since its findings will add to the existing literature in the field of critical discourse analysis.
Keywords: Power Struggle, Authorization, Rationalization, Moral Evaluation, and Mythopoeic