Kisumu 'word master' Willice Ochieng has corrected President Uhuru Kenyatta's wrong spelling of convalescing.
In a tweet after visiting ailing former Opposition leader Kenneth Matiba, Uhuru said he was convalescencing
at the hospital.
"Visited my friend Kenneth Matiba, former Minister, who is convalescencing
at a Nairobi hospital.
May God heal you my friend," read the tweet.
This caught the attention of the English guru popularly known for the ‘Mind your language’ segment on KTN.
"The right word is convalescing'
(from the verb CONVALESCE - to recuperate). It could be a typo or a mistaken spelling/word. To err is human," he said in his reply to Uhuru's tweet.
A battle of
whether the word was correctly used or not followed after a Twitter user told Ochieng both forms were correct.
"Bro, I've done my simple research and I believe the President is as right as you are," '@DKagecha' said.
Ochieng replied: "Brother, my reply was simply about the progressive tense form of the verb convalesce, which is convalescing.
"In your research bro, did you establish anywhere that there is a 'verb' like convalescence that changes into
convalescencing?"
President Uhuru Kenyatta visits former Opposition leader Kenneth Matiba in hospital on December 3, 2017. /PSCU
The Oxford Dictionary says convalesce means to recover one's health and strength over a period of time after an illness or medical treatment.
It says the correct form of the word is 'convalescing' as stated by the 'word master'.
Before his hospitalisation, the government awarded Matiba, 85, as compensation for detention and inhumane treatment by security agents.
The ruling was delivered
in August by Supreme Court judge Isaac Lenaola who handled the case while at the High Court.
Matiba suffered a serious stroke on May 26, 1991
but remained in detention without medication for one week.