From Habermas’ Bourgeois Public Sphere to Gerbaudo’s Online Crowds: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of Kenya’s #EngageThePresident on X Space
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47604/ijcpr.3516Keywords:
Social Media, Public Sphere, Discursive Governance, Political Accountability, Gen ZAbstract
Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to examine the discourse of governance, bio-power and political accountability in Kenya. Applying the lens of Foucauldian discourse analysis, the study explores #EngageThePresident X Space. At this forum, President Ruto and Gen Z participants engaged in a discussion at the height of the 2024 anti-tax law protests in Kenya.
Methodology: Underpinned by public sphere theory, we first examine the construction of subjects' positions and power relations within the discourse. Second, we analyse discourses surrounding governance, political accountability and bio-power in Kenya. Third, we explore how language, institutions, and cultural norms influence the production of knowledge, categorisation of individuals, and construction of contextual truths.
Findings: The study found that Gen Z emerged in the discourse as a fragmented subject, ranging from patriotic and emotionally volatile to naïve and tech-savvy citizens. President Ruto was constructed with multiple conflicting subject positions, demonstrating a dynamic nature of political fashioning in a legitimacy crisis. In addition, while the President tried to reassert control through a package of consultative governance, Gen Z’s fragmented discourse infused the state narrative with grief, rage, irony and resistance. Kenya’s #EngageThePresident represents a reconfiguration of the public sphere in the digital age, one where collective emotion, decentralised participation and real-time responsiveness redefine governance discourse.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The study contributes to the practice of Foucauldian discourse analysis by examining the accelerated pace of digital narratives in digital media in the Global South. It highlights a broader democratic recalibration in which citizens are not passive recipients of state narratives but active co-authors of the nation’s political discourse and statecraft. The study recommends that entrenching platformised engagement between political leaders and subaltern citizens has the potential to catalyse political stability for the maturing nations in the Global South. Future research on the impact of Gen Z awakening on the political destiny of President Ruto is deemed necessary.
Downloads
References
Arzani, S. (2025). Tweets of Resistance: Social media and Mobilization in Contemporary Kenya. A discursive study on the Kenyan protests and online activism in 2024. [Master’s Thesis, Lund University]. https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/search/publication/9201474
Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED). (2024). Anti-tax demonstrations spread nationwide and highlight Kenya’s structural challenges. Armed Conflict Location & Event Data. https://acleddata.com/report/anti-tax-demonstrations-spread-nationwide-and-highlight-kenyas-structural-challenges-july
Arribas-Ayllon, M., & Walkerdine, V. (2008). Foucauldian discourse analysis. In C. Willig & W. Stainton-Rogers (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research in psychology (pp. 91–108). Sage.
Boulton, M., Garnett, A., & Webster, F. (2022). A Foucauldian discourse analysis of media reporting on the nurse-as-hero during COVID-19. Nursing Inquiry, 29(1), e12471. https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12471
Castells, M. (2012). Networks of outrage and hope. Social movements in the internet age. Cambridge: Polity Press
Cheek, J. (2004). At the margins, discourse analysis and qualitative research. Qualitative Health etResearch, 14(8), 1140–1150. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732304266820
Chuma, W. (2004). “Liberating or Limiting the Public Sphere? Media Policy and the Zimbabwe Transition, 1980–2004.” In Zimbabwe: Injustice and Reconciliation, edited by B. Raftopoulos and T. Savage, 119–139. Cape Town: Institute for Justice and Reconciliation.
Cotter, K., Medeiros, M., Pak, C., & Thorson, K. (2021). “Reach the right people”: The politics of “interests” in Facebook’s classification system for ad targeting. Big Data & Society, 8(1), 2053951721996046. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951721996046
De Angelis, G. (2021). Habermas, democracy and the public sphere: Theory and practice. European Journal of Social Theory, 24(4), 437-447.
Dinh, T., & O'Leary, S. (2025). The unaccounted effects of digital transformation: participatory accountability in a humanitarian organisation. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 38(3), 824-852.
Earl, J., Maher, T. V., & Pan, J. (2022). The digital repression of social movements, protest, and activism: A synthetic review. Science Advances, 8(10), eabl8198. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abl8198
Fairclough, N. (2001a). Language and Power (2nd ed.). Harlow: Longman.
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change (pp. 62-240). Policy Press.
Fairclough, N., & Graham, P. (2002). Marx as Critical Discourse Analyst: the Genesis of a Critical Method and its Relevance to the Critique of Global Capital. Estdios de Sociolinguistica, 3 (1), 185-229.
Foucault M (2008) The Archaeology of Knowledge. Routledge: London
Foucault, M. (2005). Vidensarkæologien [Archeology of knowledge]. In T. Larsen, & R. Hougaard (Eds. ), Vidensarkæologien Michel Foucault (pp. 43–267). Aarhus, Denmark: Forlaget Philosophia.
Foucault M (1984) What is Enlightenment? In: Rabinow P (ed). The Foucault Reader. Random House, Inc: New York, pp 32–50.
Foucault, M. (1982). The Subject and Power. Critical Inquiry, 8(4), 777–795. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343197
Foucault, M. (1991). Governmentality. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon, & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality (pp. 87–104). University of Chicago Press.
Foucault M (1991) Governmentality. In: Burchel G, Gordon C and Miller P (eds). The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. Harvester Wheatsheaf: London, pp 87–104.
Foucault, M. (1990). The use of pleasure: The history of sexuality, Vol. 2. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. (1978). The history of sexuality: Volume I—An introduction. Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. (1972). The Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Tavistock Publication.
Fleming, L. & Muia, W. (2024, July 5). Kenyan leader faces furious young people in online debate. BBC News, London. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce58y8ngdk5o
Garland, D. (2014). What is a “History of the Present”? On Foucault’s Genealogies and Their Critical Preconditions. Punishment & Society, 16(4), 365–384.
Gerbaudo, P. (2022). Theorizing reactive democracy: The social media public sphere, online crowds and the plebiscitary logic of online reactions. Communication Theory, 9(2), 120–138.
Goldstein, J. & Rotich, J. (2008). Digitally networked technology in Kenya’s 2007–2008 post-election crisis. Working paper, Berkman Center for Internet and Society. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/publications/2008/Digitally_Networked_Technology_Kenyas_Post-Election_Crisis,.2008 (accessed September 19, 2025).
Government of Kenya (GoK) (2010). The Constitution of Kenya 2010. Nairobi: Government Printer.
Guba, E., & Lincoln, Y. (1994). Competing paradigm in qualitative research. In Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 99-136). Sage Publications.
Hammond, C., Ncube, M., & Fido, D. (2025). A Foucauldian discourse analysis of the construction of people of colour (POC) as criminals in UK and US print media following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. Journal of Forensic Psychology Research and Practice, 25(1), 344–363. https://doi.org/10.1080/24732850.2024.2317745
Habermas, J. (1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Helberger, N. (2019). On the democratic role of news recommenders. Digital Journalism, 7(8), 993–1012. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2019.1623700
Hodges, B. D., Kuper, A., & Reeves, S. (2008). Discourse analysis. British Medical Journal, 337, a879.
Jungherr, A., & Schroeder, R. (2023). AI’s impact on the public arena. Communication Theory, 22(02), Y02. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.22020402
Khan, T. H., & MacEachen, E. (2021). Foucauldian discourse analysis: Moving beyond a social constructionist analytic. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 20, 16094069211018009. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069211018009
Khene, C., Siebörger, I., Thinyane, M., & Simuja, C. (2021). Power participation in digital citizen engagement in South African local government: The case of MOBISAM. arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.09798.
Mann, S., J. Nolan & B. Wellman (2003). "Sousveillance: Inventing and Using Wearable Computing Devices for Data Collection in Surveillance Environments." Surveillance & Society 1(3): 331‐355.
Mbembe, A. (1992). “The Banality of Power and the Aesthetics of Vulgarity in the Postcolony.” Public Culture 4 (2): 1–30.
Melchiorre, L. (2020). "A new animal": student activism and the Kenyan state in an era of multiparty politics, 1991-2000. Journal of Eastern African Studies. 14. 10.1080/17531055.2020.1832370.
Mkandawire, K., & Mwalabu, M. (2024). Corruption in public service delivery. In Corruption Proofing in Africa (pp. 116-129). Routledge.
Mignolo, W. D. (2009). Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and Decolonial Freedom. Theory, Culture and Society, 26(7–8). https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276409349275.
Mills et al, 2009 – Mills, A.J., Durepos, G., Wiebe, E. (Eds.). (2009). Encyclopedia of case study research. Sage Publications.
Milan, S., & Treré, E. (2022). Big Data from the South(s): An Analytical Matrix to Investigate Data at the Margins. In D. A. Rohlinger, & S. Sobieraj (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Digital Media Sociology (pp. 76–93). Oxford University Press.
Moyo, D. (2009). Citizen journalism and the parallel market of information in Zimbabwe’s 2008 election. Journalism Studies 10(4): 551–567.
Moyo, L. (2011). Repression, propaganda and digital resistance. In African media and the digital public sphere, ed. F. Banda, O.F. Mudhai and W.J. Tettey, 125–142. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mukhongo, L. (2020). Participatory Media Cultures: Virality, Humour, and Online Political Contestations in Kenya. Africa Spectrum. 55. 148-169. 10.1177/0002039720957014.
Mutsvairo, B., Columbus, S., & Leijendekker, I. (2014). Reconnoitering the role of (citizen) journalism ethics in the emerging networked public sphere. Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, 35(3), 4–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/02560054.2014.963279
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. (2009). “Making Sense of Mugabeism in Local and Global Politics: ‘So Blair, Keep Your England and Let Me Keep My Zimbabwe’.” Third World Quarterly 30 (6): 1139–1158.
Nendo. (2024). The #Reject Revolution: When Tweets Take to the Streets. The Story of 25 Million Posts Powering Kenya's #RejectFinanceBill2024 protests” https://www.nendo.co.ke/post/the-reject-revolution-kenyan-rejectfinancebill2024-protests
Njuki, E., Mbaka, N., & Atieno, C. (2024). Hashtag Activism: Examining #RutoMustGo and #RejectFinanceBill in Showcasing Kenyans on X as an Imagined Community of Language Users. OALib. 11. 1-24. 10.4236/oalib.1112256.
Nothias, T., & Cheruiyot, D. (2019). A "Hotbed" of digital empowerment? Media criticism in Kenya between playful engagement and co-option. International Journal of Communication, 13, 136-159.
Nielsen, J. (2006). The 90-9-1 rule for participation inequality in social media and online communities. Nielsen Norman Group Articles. Retrieved from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/participation-inequality/
Nyabola, N. (2018) Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics. 1st edn. Zed Books. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1990637.
Nyamnjoh, F. (2005). Africa’s Media: Democracy & the Politics of Belonging. London: Zed Book.
Owino, V. (2024, July 4). Inside Ruto’s two-hour engagement with the youth on X Spaces. Daily Nation. https://nation.africa/kenya/news/inside-ruto-s-two-hour-engagement-with-the-youth-on-x-spaces--4680820
Palinkas, L.A., Horwitz, S.M., Green, C.A., Wisdom, J.P., Duan, N., & Hoagwood, K.E. (2015). Purposeful Sampling for Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis in Mixed Method Implementation Research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42, 533-544.
Pardosi, P., Muttaqim, H., & Sugeng, I. S. (2024). Social Media Activism: The Rise of Digital Movements in the Global South. Cognitionis Civitatis et Politicae, 1(6), 411-421.
Raby, R. (2005). What is resistance? Journal of Youth Studies, 8(2), 151–171.
Radoli, L. O., Eboi, A. A., Aswani, D. R., & Nakhumbi, R. O. (2025). X Space and the Revolution of Digital News Content: The Case of Generation-Z Protest Narratives in Kenya. African Multidisciplinary Journal of Research, 1(1), 602-621.
Rauchfleisch, A., Vogler, D., & Eisenegger, M. (2021). Public sphere in crisis mode: How the COVID-19 pandemic influenced public discourse and user behavior in the Swiss Twitter-sphere. Javnost - The Public, 28(2), 129–148. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2021.1923622
Rodney, W. (1972). How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, London & Nairobi: Heinemann
Sam, C. & Gupton, J. (2023). Of Power and Stories: Using Foucauldian Discourse Analysis for a Digimodern Era. Contributions to the 28th Congress of the German Society for Educational Science: Verlag Barbara Budrich.
Sharp, L., & Richardson, T. (2001). Reflections on Foucauldian discourse analysis in planning and environmental policy research. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 3(3), 193–209.
Schäfer, M. S. (2015). Digital public sphere. The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication, 15, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118541555.wbiepc087
Seeliger, M., & Sevignani, S. (2022). A new structural transformation of the public sphere? An introduction. Theory, Culture & Society, 39(4), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764221109439
Siziba, G., & Ncube, G. (2015). Mugabe’s fall from grace: Satire and fictional narratives as silent forms of resistance in/on Zimbabwe. Social Dynamics. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2015.1106124
Stahl, T. (2020). Privacy in public: A democratic defense. Moral Philosophy and Politics, 7(1), 73–96. https://doi.org/10.1515/mopp-2019-0031
Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. SAGE Publications.
Terranova, T. (2015). Securing the Social: Foucault and Social Networks. In S. Fuggle, Y. Lanci, & M. Tazzioli (Eds. ), Foucault and the History of Our Present. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Terzis, G. (2016). The end of hypocrisy: Online activism and ethno-political conflicts. Pacific Journalism Review, 22(1), 105-120.
Tufekci, Z. (2017). Twitter and tear gas: The power and fragility of networked protest. Yale University Press.
Twinomurinzi, H. (2024). From tweets to streets: How Kenya's generation Z (Gen Z) is redefining political and digital activism. In African Conference on Information Systems and Technology. 13. (p. 13).
Waitt, G. (2010). Doing Foucauldian discourse analysis-revealing social realities. In I. Hay (Eds.), Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography (pp. 217-240). Don Mills, Ont. : Oxford University Press. https://ro.uow.edu.au/era/2196/
Waswa, D. (2021). On Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Political Theatre: An Artist's Conflict with the State over Performance Space. Kenya Scholars and Studies Association (KESSA), Fall 2021, Volume 9, Number 2, 30.
Wa Thiong'o, N. (1997). Enactments of power: The politics of performance space. TDR, 11-30.
Willems, W. (2010). “Beyond Dramatic Revolutions and Grand Rebellions: Everyday Forms of Resistance during the ‘Zimbabwe Crisis’.” Comminicare 29: 1–17.
Zoller, H. M. (2003). Health on the line: Identity and disciplinary control in employee occupational health and safety discourse. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 31(2), 118–139.
Zuboff, S. (2019). The age of surveillance capitalism. Profile Books.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Paul Muya, Josephine Otiende
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
