International Journal of Research in Social Sciences
Year : 2016, Volume : 6, Issue : 10
First page : ( 705) Last page : ( 727)
Online ISSN : 2249-2496.

Manifestation and social construction of corruption in Kenya's passenger service vehicles in the face of blasé passengers

Dr Khasandi-Telewa Vicky

Department of Literary and Communication Studies, Laikipia University, Kenya

Online published on 19 November, 2016.

Abstract

The traffic department of the Kenya Police Service is perceived to be the most notorious establishment for taking bribes. Respondents to annual surveys on corruption conducted by Transparency International always rank Kenya's police service as one of the most corrupt among Kenyan institutions. This study used the Discourse Historical model as adapted by Khosravi Nik to scrutinize the communication in the Public Service Vehicles (PSVs), with a view to investigating the manifestation and social construction of corruption in PSVs, the attitudes of passengers towards corruption, and to make suggestions as to how passengers can help eradicate it. The type of research was qualitative using focus group discussions to examine attitudes and power relations. Topoi as presented in Toulmin's argumentation scheme demonstrated ideological representations in lexical selection and schematic organization that aid proliferation of corruption in Kenya. There are diverse, ever mutating ways of corruption manifestation in PSVs such as the traditional ‘extra page‘ in the driving licence and now the vogue electronic money transfers. Passengers need to wake up from their blasé position and contribute to corruption eradication.

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Keywords

Argumentation, Critical Discourse Analysis, Topoi, Corruption eradication, Passenger action.

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