FREDRICK ALUVALE2026-07-142020-04https://repository.mua.ac.ke/handle/123456789/2946There is declining productivity of the airline industry in Kenya due to disengagement; devastatingly effecting on their productivity and significant impacting on the organizational performance of the airline industry. Consequently, the industryis losing between 5% and 15% of its annual sales revenue. Poor leadership decisions have been linked to poor employee involvement in the Kenya airline industry with most empirical literature indicating that ethical leadership has a positive significant effect on employee engagement. However, empirical evidences suggest that existing research on the influence of; leaders ' technical skills, personality traits, leadership credibility and empowerment behavior on employee engagement in the Kenya Airline industry is relatively limited. Therefore, it remains unclear whether the available ethical leadership programs are effective in stimulating the commitment of employees needed to achieve the desired level of employee productivity. Accordingly, this study seeks to close this research gap by assessing the influence of ethical leadership on employee engagement in the Kenyan airline industry. The study was guided by the following; adaptive and generative learning theory and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. This study, which adopted descriptive research design, had a target population of 1170 employees of Kenya Airways who were located in Nairobi. Using the formula by Mugenda and Mugenda (2003), the study obtained a sample population of 117 respondents, who were selected using simple stratified random sampling technique. The study collected data from primary sources using structured questionnaire, which was tested for validity and reliability before administration. Data was analysed using quantitative approach to produce descriptive statistics which was in form of frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20.0 was used to help analyse the data. The study concludes that; technical abilities in ethical leadership highly influences employee engagement in Kenyan airline industry, personality traits highly influences employee engagement in Kenyan airline industry, empowerment behaviour highly influences employee engagement in Kenyan airline industry, and credibility (moral) traits highly influences employee engagement in Kenyan airline. The study recommends that Kenyan airline industry should; carry out a business reengineering processes to enhance the technical abilities of its leaders, review its human resource development strategies to ensure that their leaders adequately display responsive personality traits, equip its managers with training and skills empowerment through regular seminars and in house group meetings, empowers its managers and leaders with insights on moral traits.Article