George E Aberi

Kisii University, Languages, Linguistics and Literature, Faculty Member

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George Aberi is a lecturer and former Chair of the Department of Languages, Linguistics and Literature at Kisii University, Kenya. He holds a PhD in linguistics from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, where he researched the "intertextuality and recontextualisation of the normative discourse of gender equality in Kenya’s policy discourse of women’s rights."
Phone: +254713835255
Address: 408 Kisii 40200
Kisii County-Kenya

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Papers by George E Aberi

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

Journal of Linguistics and Communication Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic harmed millions of Kenyans and created a social and political crisis necess... more 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 containin...

Semantic Derogation in Ekegusii Discourses: Implications for Girl Education

Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 1(2)72-98

This paper examines semantic derogation in the Ekegusii language, with a view to showing how an a... more This paper examines semantic derogation in the Ekegusii language, with a view to showing how an awareness of such derogation affects girls’ self-concept, worldview, and attitudes towards education. The findings of an empirical study conducted in Southern Kisii, Kenya, were used to validate the arguments presented in this paper. The study not only demonstrates how the spoken word can be used to perpetuate the semantic devaluing of women, but also provides insights into the strategies used to manipulate ideological beliefs, thereby distorting the realities surrounding the text. The paper suggests that the discursive use of derogatory terms has the potential to polarize social relations between men and women, while negatively impacting girls’ self-concept, worldview, and attitudes toward education

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Rhetorical Navigation of Uncertainty: The Art of Political Persuasion in President Ruto's Response to the Gen-Z Crisis on X

Rhetoric and Political Communication, 2025

This paper explores the rhetorical strategies employed by President William Ruto to address the G... more This paper explores the rhetorical strategies employed by President William Ruto to address the Gen-Z crisis and foster a narrative of hope and resilience amidst socio-political turmoil. While existing research on political rhetoric is abundant, there is a notable lack of focused studies on the application of Aristotelian rhetorical appeals within Kenyan political discourse, particularly during crises. Moreover, given its recent occurrence, there is insufficient analysis of the Gen-Z crisis in Kenya from a discourse and sociolinguistic perspective. The study is guided by two questions: 1) What rhetorical strategies does President William Ruto utilize in his interaction with Gen Z? and 2) What are the perceived impacts of these rhetorical strategies on Gen Z and the Kenyan public in general? The study utilized Aristotle's rhetorical theory, anchored in Norman Fairclough's three-tier approach to critical discourse analysis as its main analytical framework. Thematic analysis is employed to uncover patterns in rhetorical strategies and their implications. This research contributes to the fields of political communication, sociolinguistics, and discourse analysis by shedding light on the rhetorical strategies of a modern African leader.

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Contrastive rhetoric and the discourse of second language learning across cultures: A critical synthesis of existing literature

Journal of Languages, Linguistics and Literary Studies (JLLLS), 4(3), 123-130

Contrastive rhetoric is the field that studies how language and writing styles differ between cul... more Contrastive rhetoric is the field that studies how language and writing styles differ between cultures and how these differences affect second language learning. The article attempted to critically synthesize the existing literature on contrastive rhetoric and its implications for intercultural second language learning. As a branch of comparative linguistics, contrastive rhetoric involves the structured study of a combination of languages in order to solve the problems that learners face in transferring rhetorical patterns from a first language to a second language, thereby identifying their structural differences and similarities. However, the question of whether a learner's first language influences foreign language learning or not has remained a mystery to many second language acquisition scholars and researchers for many years. The article uses a systematic review approach methodology to discuss the origins and development of contrastive analysis, its theoretical foundations and assumptions, its applications and benefits to learning second languages and other fields, and the theory of contrastive analysis. The research shows that although contrastive rhetoric has been widely criticized for being overly simplistic and narrow, it has evolved to include interdisciplinary perspectives and approaches that serve to address linguistic diversity and inclusivity. The research shows that contrastive rhetoric is not only a starting point for educators but also a tool for addressing the rhetorical challenges that students face when transferring rhetorical patterns from their native languages.

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

Journal of Linguistics and Communication Studies, 4(2), 1–17., 2025

The COVID-19 pandemic harmed millions of Kenyans and created a social and political crisis necess... more 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.

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Language in the service of disempowerment: Unpacking women's socialization in Ekegusii

Journal of Languages, Linguistics and Literary Studies (JLLLS), 5(1), 40-49, 2025

This paper seeks to illustrate how sexualized Ekegusii transitive verbs and common nouns portray ... more This paper seeks to illustrate how sexualized Ekegusii transitive verbs and common nouns portray women as passive recipients of men's actions, reinforcing their subordinate roles in the Gusii community. It addresses two questions: Do sexualized Ekegusii verbs and nouns discriminate against women? And how does this language impact the self-concept and worldview of Gusii girls and young women? Based on a study in Southern Kisii, Kenya, the findings reveal how language can be used discursively to socialize girls into accepting a feminine ideal that perpetuates their subordinate status. Ekegusii nouns and verbs were found to be used discursively to depict women as powerless and inferior persons, underscoring the need to examine this language as a tool for social control. Raising awareness could lead to healthier self-concepts and support the broader struggle against gender inequality in the community. The study also highlights that the linguistic framing of women adversely affects the self-image and agency of Gusii girls and women, indicating that language not only reflects societal attitudes but also shapes individual perceptions. It emphasizes the urgent need for increased self-awareness and critical reflection among girls regarding the discursive use of Ekegusii, thereby enabling them to actively contribute to combating oppressive gender dynamics in society.

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Phonological Adaptation of Dholuo Verbs and Nouns Borrowed into Ekegusii

Journal of research innovation and implications in education, Feb 2, 2024

This study evaluates how Dholuo lexical items (nouns and verbs) that got their way into EkeGusii ... more This study evaluates how Dholuo lexical items (nouns and verbs) that got their way into EkeGusii language are integrated and nativised to fit within EkeGusii phonological inventory. Languages tend to borrow words from other languages when they get into contact with each other. EkeGusii, for instance, has borrowed many words from Dholuo as a result of assimilation and their regular interaction. The study targeted two types of populations: the population of participants and that of the borrowed words. Purposive sampling techniques were used to pick respondents for the study. Using Hooper's (1976) Generative phonology theory that seeks to explain the mental processes underlying language production and perception, the study identified and described the phonological changes that loan words from Dholuo undergo to fit into EkeGusii phonological system. The study confirmed that borrowed Dholuo words are integrated into EkeGusii phonological system through stop weakening, devoicing of Dholuo consonants, consonant substitution, vowel epenthesis, and vowel substitution. The findings from this study will contribute to the existing literature on African languages in relation to borrowing within generative phonology. Based on the findings of the study, more studies are recommended on other African languages to give a clear picture on how EkeGusii language adapts words borrowed from other Nilotic groups, considering that the Gusii people are bordered with Nilotic speakers.

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Effectiveness of the Policy Interventions in Eradicating FGC Practices in Marani Sub-County, Kisii County, Kenya

Journal of Research Innovation and Implications in Education

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) is a harmful practice that violates the human rights of... more Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) is a harmful practice that violates the human rights of women and girls. Despite global efforts to restrict the practice, there have been few reports on major positive changes to the problem. This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy interventions in eradicating FGC practices in Marani Sub-County, Kisii County, Kenya. The study was guided by the theory of Reasoned Action. This study used a quasi-experiment design. The researcher used cluster sampling to identify 200 households and purposive sampling procedures, to identify 13 key informants for the study. The study used questionnaires, key informant interview and focus group discussion to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. In this context, quantitative data was analyzed quantitatively. Qualitative data (words/propositions) was analyzed descriptively. The study revealed that stress, stigma, isolation, and marital problems were main psychological effects. Findi...

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The Place of Women in the Implementation of FGC Interventions on the Psychosocial Wellbeing of the Girl Child in Marani Sub-County, Kisii County, Kenya

by George E Aberi and magdaline gesare

Journal of Research Innovation and Implications in Education

In Kenya, Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGC) is a cultural practice that is widely practiced... more In Kenya, Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGC) is a cultural practice that is widely practiced. Despite interventional efforts to end FGC, progress has been limited both in preventing it and caring for girls and women who have already undergone the cut. The practice has persisted, albeit with some changes. This study sought to examine the place of women in the implementation of FGC interventions on the psychosocial wellbeing of the girl child in Marani Sub-County, Kenya. The study was anchored on the step change theory. The study used interviews and questionnaires to collect qualitative and quantitative data. In this context, quantitative data was collected using questionnaires, analyzed quantitatively. Qualitative data (words/propositions) was collected through key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and analyzed descriptively. The study revealed that stress, stigma, isolation, and marital problems were main psychological effects. Findings from this study conclude tha...

format_quoteIn 16 African countries, the percentage of men wanting to end FGC is higher than for women, suggesting a communication gap.format_quote

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Intertextuality in Kenyan Policy Discourse on the Rights of Women

The investigative aim of this thesis is to explore the recontextualization of the normative disco... more The investigative aim of this thesis is to explore the recontextualization of the normative discourse of gender equality in Kenya’s policy discourse of women’s rights. Its purpose is threefold: Firstly, it attempts to examine the different ways in which policy makers use language in the course of interpreting and implementing gender equality policies. This includes a focus on both the linguistic and rhetorical/discursive strategies that these policy makers employ for such functions as endorsing, negotiating, legitimating, or even contesting given policy proposals. Secondly, the thesis endeavours to bring to light the different and changing conceptions of gender (in)equality espoused by the various policy actors involved in Kenya’s policy discourse of women’s rights over a critical ten-year period between 1995 and 2005. These policy actors include the Kenyan government; women’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who actively seek to influence government policy; and the United Nations’ organizations with responsibility for ensuring the implementation of women’s human rights. Thirdly, the thesis attempts to show the extent to which policy initiatives proposed by the human rights-based women’s NGOs in Kenya are taken up in the texts produced by the Kenyan government. In order to gain a better understanding of the discursive interactions between and amongst the policy actors in this study, an intertextual approach to Norman Fairclough’s model of critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used. The thesis drew discourse samples for analysis from the Kenyan government’s periodic reports detailing progress towards fully meeting the terms of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); the documents produced by the Committee overseeing the Convention that provided assessment of the Kenyan government’s reports; the Kenyan government’s official texts on gender policy; and Kenyan women NGOs’ annual reports and other texts. Though many scholars and researchers of women’s rights praise the UN Committee’s imperatives for bringing about policy changes concerning women’s rights globally, the findings from this study confirm that the Committee for CEDAW has only textual power, and that it lacks enforcement powers to ensure the implementation of the universal rights of women within the local milieu. In a similar vein, this study demonstrates that though the women’s NGOs play a significant role both in terms of identifying important areas of concern for policy intervention, and in necessitating changes in the genres of the national government, their participation has largely failed to ensure the Kenyan government’s epistemological shift from its current state of recognizing the existence of women’s rights, to the phase of implementing them. This thesis also establishes that differing conceptions of gender (in)equality and ideological differences between the Committee for CEDAW and the Kenyan government tend to influence both the Committee’s and the Kenyan government’s use of varied discourses, genres, and styles, with the intent of manipulating to outmanoeuvre one another. This means that both the Kenyan government and the Committee live in different worlds, suggesting a continuing gap between the Committee’s normative knowledge of women’s rights to gender equality, and the Kenyan government’s cultural relativist perspectives concerning such rights. As a solution to these power struggles and political differences that derail policy making on gender equality, this study recommends the need both for the Committee and the Kenyan government to employ a reflexive and pragmatic mix of both the universalist and cultural relativist approaches to gender equality. This will bring forth shared areas of interest concerning women’s rights between the UN and the Kenyan government, based on their applicability within the local context. Moreover, such an approach will create a possibility for the Committee to understand the Kenyan government’s cultural relativist/competing discourse of women’s rights as another way of conceiving gender equality (i.e. productive power-knowledges), rather than viewing them as irrelevant cultural claims that stand in stark opposition to the universal understandings of women’s rights to gender equality. Likewise, the aforesaid reflexive and pragmatic mix of approaches will help the Kenyan policy makers to develop a more critical and nuanced view of the universal approaches to gender equality, thereby reducing their varied forms of resistance to gender equality via subtle evasive strategies. Methodologically, this thesis shows how a comparative intertextual approach to Fairclough’s model of critical discourse analysis can be used as a framework for establishing the relations between policy text and context. This framework includes the micro-level of textual/linguistic analysis, the meso level of discursive interactions, and the macro level of socio-cultural practice at the local,…

Influence of gendered linguistic images on girl education: A case study of Southern Kisii District, Kenya

Discursive Use Of Language And The Position Of Women In Society

This book attempts to demonstrate how the discursive sexism in Ekegusii discourses, support the p... more This book attempts to demonstrate how the discursive sexism in Ekegusii discourses, support the politics of exclusion and marginalization, that continue to limit women's participation in Public life. The text succeeds in showing how men continue to use language as a tool for enslaving and oppressing women, hence the never ending power struggles between men and women in society.The book is a must read, if you are to know the hidden power of our native tongues.

Intertextuality in Kenyan Policy Discourse on the Rights of Women

The Discursive Politics of Gender Equality: Stretching, Bending and Policymaking Edited by E. Lombardo, P. Meier and M. Verloo (2012) Abingdon: Routledge, 217pp

Gender and Language, 2015

George E Aberi

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