Singing Politics?: A Historical and Contemporary Examination of the Role of Popular Gospel Music and Pentecostalism in Kenya’s Presidential Elections

Abstract

This study investigates the role of popular gospel music and Pentecostalism in Kenya’s presidential elections. Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity has, over the years, shaped the political and social fabric of the country, as a significant portion of the population adheres to this religion. Contemporary gospel music, originating from Pentecostal ideologies, has become the dominant genre in Kenya and has as a result been employed by presidential candidates during electoral campaigns. My work has led me to conclude that gospel music serves three essential functions in a campaign: endorsement of presidential candidates; a socio-political reflection of the society; and facilitation of peacebuilding and reconciliation. I conducted both physical and virtual ethnographies, which included interviews with gospel artists who have collaborated with presidential candidates and online observations of live campaign coverage. I have theoretically employed Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on the lyrics of selected songs as case studies, some of which contain biblical passages that figuratively likened presidential candidates to biblical figures. I also incorporate religious populism in my analysis chapters, a relatively interesting concept that remains overlooked in African nations, particularly in Kenya. Presidential candidates have employed the theory of ‘religious populism’, characterised by a dichotomy of ‘us’ versus ‘them’, where ‘us’ represents political candidates embodying religious principles and ‘them’ denotes the opposition. I argue that gospel music in this context was appropriated to exploit the general will of the population. Although gospel music continues to be an important component in politics both presently and in the foreseeable future in Kenya, the pitfalls of employing gospel music in these ‘secular’ contexts must be acknowledged, as discussed in the concluding section.