International Journal of Advances in Scientific Research and Engineering (ijasre) E-ISSN : 2454-8006 DOI: 10.31695/IJASRE.2022.8.6.4 Volume 8, Issue 6 June - 2022 www.ijasre.net Page 25 Women Leadership and Economic Empowerment in Kajiado County, Kenya Boinett Caroline Cherotich 1 & Dr. Jane Njoroge 2 1 Masters Student, Department of Public Policy and Administration 2Lecturer, Department of Public Policy and Administration Kenyatta University, Kenya ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Most organizations have been reporting their inability to achieve the set objectives. Several factors have been pointed out to be the major cause. Apart from other external factors such as adequate finance, political goodwill, and a conducive environment, there seem to be other factors related to intergroup cohesion that affect goal achievement. This study was done in Kajiado County, Kenya and it sought to establish Women's Leadership and Economic Empowerment in Kajiado County, Kenya. The study had four objectives, to establish the influence of policies by women in leadership on economic empowerment, to explore the influence of income-generating programs by women in leadership on economic empowerment, to determine the influence of community capacity building by women in leadership on economic empowerment and to examine the influence of financial support programs by women in leadership on economic empowerment in Kajiado County which is categorized as a marginalized County. The study adopted a simple random sampling method and purposive sampling technique to select the sample size. The sample size comprised residents and community members of productive age between 20 years to 59 years and 14 women political leaders of Kajiado County. The study concluded that policies, income-generating activities, capacity-building programs, and financial support programs by women leaders have a positive and significant influence on economic empowerment in Kajiado County. Women's presence in positions of leadership has seen the formulation of policies and programs that address the economic aspects of women. The study recommended that more women should be integrated into leadership positions so that they can contribute and influence decisions, policies, and programs aimed at enhancing the economic empowerment of the community members. This study is expected to be valuable to researchers and scholars. It will also be of significance to policymakers, the government, and international originations as the study will generate findings that can be relied upon to inform future developments on women's empowerment to leadership positions. Key Words: Women in Leadership, Community Capacity Building, Economic Empowerment, Financial Support Programmes, Income Generating Programs, Policies. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. INTRODUCTION Women‟s participation in political sphere and in decision -making positions is linked to the achievement of several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets. SDG 5 emphasizes on achievement of gender equality and empowering all women and girls. It seeks to ensure women‟s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political economic and public life [1] . As a result of this global advances have been made towards the recognition of the principle of women‟s political economic and social equality [2] . Women‟s participation in political sphere and in decision-making positions is linked to the achievement of several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets. SDG 5 emphasizes on achievement of gender equality and empowering all women and girls It seeks to ensure women‟s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political economic and public life [1] As a result of this global advances have been made towards the recognition of the principle of women‟s political economic and social equality [2]. 2. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY There is growing recognition of the untapped capacity and talents of women and women‟s leadership‟. Over the last two decades the rate of women‟s representation in national parliaments globally has incrementally increased from 11.8q percent in 1998q to 17.8q percent in 2008q to 23.5 percent in 2018, and to 24.5% as of October 2019 (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2019). Some