Mwaniki, Esther Wandia2022-09-192022-09-192022-05http://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/24249A research project submitted to the school of Humanities and social sciences in partial Fulfilment of the requirement for the award of Master of Arts in Public Policy and Administration Kenyatta university, May 2022Women globally persist to encounter obstacles related to leadership. The challenges arise from societies and traditions where the family unit of socialization is the central organization of patriarchy which is a vital notion in displaying gender disparity. In addition, supportive legal frameworks contribute in discriminating women leading to gender inequality in leadership. This research study is based on the thinking that appropriate and structured women empowerment in a genuine manner can alter the way the county government is run especially in Kenya. Since 2007, 2013 and 2017, the total number of women parliamentarians is still low, at 9.8%. Some improvement has been made in the present parliament, with women members of parliament now encompassing 19.5%. Thus an equality strategy in women leadership has not been implemented fully. The main objective of the study is to analyze the determinant of equality practices on women leadership in Murang’a County Government. The study was guided by three theories namely: Liberalism Theory, Alternate Approach Theory and Patriarchy Theory. The study also adopted descriptive research design. The population under study comprises of 159 senior government officers as well as political elite in Murang’a County Government and the legislative assemble of Murang’a. The study used purposive sampling in identifying persons with requisite knowledge of the concept of the study. The primary data was collected using the questionnaire and the secondary data was obtained from the government policy documents, gender policies annual reports, strategic plans as well as periodic reports both published and unpublished. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel Software and results presented on tables and percentage for ease of data interpretation and consumption by the readers. The study established that there is a historical conviction that, women are accountable to take care of kids and do household chores than involving themselves in outside home activities like career advancement or furthering in higher education. Women are over tasked with diverse domestic roles which include but not limited to cooking, take care of kids, washing among other endless roles which have neither pay nor compensation. All these actions make women fully engaged in the family unit tasks and hamper their participation in the politics and leadership of the nation. Owing to the findings, the government of Kenya should strengthen the existing constitutional and supportive legal framework in supporting equality strategies in women leadership. This will ensure that women acquire economic resources leading to increase of women’s attendance in the political realm. In addition, County governments should adopt the best practices in the field of recruitment of any government vacancy which is based on fairness and gender equity.enThesis