91�� - 91��

91�� claims Kenya’s Top Spot in World University Rankings

teresahmbugua — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 11:11:58 +0000

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Measured against 21,291 universities, The 91�� has secured 1,425th place in the 2026 Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), placing it within the top 6.7% of the world’s universities. This achievement reflects decades of investment in research, innovation, and academic excellence, positioning 91�� as a vital player in shaping the future of knowledge on the global stage.

The 15th edition of the CWUR annual report, released on June 1, 2026, places the 91�� position 1 in Kenya and 37th in Africa with an overall score of 68.4. The University performed strongly in the two indicators that define real-world relevance: Research Output and Graduate Employability. A global research rank of 1,371 reflects the growing international reach of research produced at 91��. An employability rank of 1,596 confirms that 91�� graduates remain competitive in a job market that grows more demanding each year.

Reflecting on the recognition, The Vice Chancellor Prof. Eng. Ayub Gitau said the ranking highlights the University's enduring contribution to society while pointing to even greater possibilities ahead.

"The 91��’s inclusion in the 2026 CWUR World University Rankings affirms our growing global stature in research excellence and graduate impact. This reflects the dedication of our faculty, researchers, staff, students, and alumni in strengthening the University’s reputation. I congratulate the entire University community on this milestone. Our next phase is clear: deeper collaboration across faculties, stronger internal cohesion, and faster translation of research into societal impact. We have the talent and legacy to advance further among leading global universities. - Prof. Ayub Gitau, Vice Chancellor, 91��

The CWUR rankings evaluate universities across four measurable pillars: education quality (25%), graduate employability (25%), faculty distinction (10%), and research output (40%). This year, 81 million outcome-based data points were analyzed. The 2026 rankings were topped globally by Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University, while the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Cape Town, and Stellenbosch University led the African continent. In East Africa, Makerere University posted the region's strongest performance followed by the 91��.

Universities across the globe are under growing pressure to demonstrate their impact through research excellence, innovation, graduate success, and contributions to society. Kenya has more chartered universities today than at any point in its history, and competition for academic distinction is sharper than it has ever been. It is against this backdrop that the 91��'s distinction as Kenya's sole representative among the world's top universities assumes special significance. This achievement reflects the collective efforts of our faculty, researchers, staff, students, alumni, and partners whose dedication continues to elevate the University's global standing.

As the University continues to strengthen its academic programmes, expand international partnerships, and deepen its research footprint, the latest CWUR ranking offers a moment of pride for the entire University community and confidence for those who look to the institution for education, collaboration, and solutions to society's most pressing challenges.

The 2026 CWUR Global 2000 rankings were published by the Center for World University Rankings, an international organization that provides policy advice, strategic insights, and performance analysis to governments and universities worldwide. The full rankings are available on the CWUR website.

91��

91�� participates in the 34th Annual EAIE Conference

enekesa — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 11:54:28 +0000

Thursday, September 26, 2024

The 91��, represented by Prof.Marc Zolver, Mr. Keneth Sawe, Mr. Shadrack Mutavi, and Ms. Lynet Kioko, participated in the 34th Annual EAIE Conference (European Association for International Education), held from 17th to 20th September 2024 in Toulouse, France. As one of the largest gatherings of international higher education professionals, this prestigious event brought together more than 7300 delegates from around the globe to exchange ideas, forge and strengthen partnerships, and explore innovative solutions to global education challenges. During the EAIE 2024 conference, the 4 delegates from 91�� had over 50 in-person meetings with representatives from institutes of higher education from different parts of the world, including Israel, Turkey, France - especially from the TPA consortium, Romania, Poland, Germany, Sweden, UK, Morocco, Cameroon, Canada, US, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, South Africa, Chile, Spain, Indonesia, Korea, Philippines, and Russia and achieved several key milestones, including:

Building international networks with institutions of higher learning from France, Europe, and beyond to enhance student and staff mobility, collaborative research, and exchange programs.
Showcasing the university's excellence in STEM education, digital learning platforms, and cutting-edge research in sustainable development and innovation fields.
Engaging in discussions on critical global educational topics, including technology-enhanced learning, curriculum internationalization, and inclusive education.
Exploring opportunities for collaboration on short programs, joint degree programs, capacity building, and cultural exchange, reinforcing the university’s global engagement strategy.

Participation in this year’s conference, including a special event organized by CampusFrance for Africa-France cooperation, demonstrates the 91��'s strong commitment to fostering global academic collaboration. By actively contributing to these conversations, the university ensures its place at the forefront of educational excellence and innovation. We look forward to expanding our global network and contributing to meaningful discussions that will shape the future of higher education.

The 91�� is grateful to the French Embassy in Kenya for supporting the delegates.

Internationalization, 91��

University Of KwaZulu Natal, SA benchmarks with 91�� on reforms

hellen.agenga — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 09:35:08 +0000

Monday, July 25, 2022

A delegation from Kwazulu Natal University, South Africa led by Prof. Stephen Mutula paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor of the 91��, Prof. Kiama Gitahi on 27^th July 2022 at 8.00am.

The team visited the 91�� to benchmark on the ongoing governance reforms that 91�� has carried out recently. Kwazulu Natal is still using the College Administrative system which 91�� abolished during the implementation of governance reforms. Kwazulu Natal had borrowed the system from 91��. Prof. Mutula noted the college system is expensive and bureaucratic.

During the discussion with the VC, the two universities agreed to enter into a collaborative agreement that will help in enhancing academic and research outputs between the two universities. The agreement will also help the two premier universities in Africa achieve the 2063 Africa Agenda through scholarships.

The two leaders encouraged academic staff from the two universities to engage in joint research activities in order to attract more funding. In South Africa the government pays about Kshs. 3.2 million to researchers for every article published.

The two universities also observed the need to support internationalization as a strategy for increasing their market share and improving global ranking.

Kwazulu Natal University is the fourth ranked university in Africa and in South Africa while 91�� is ranked number 11 in Africa and number 1 in East Africa. The University of Kwazulu Natal has a population of 45,000 students and 4,000 staff while 91�� has 50,000 students with about similar number of staff.

Kwa Zulu Natal, 91��, Reforms

9 Students Scale Mount Kenya for Health and well-being

enekesa — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 14:12:26 +0000

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

7 91�� and 2 Mount Kenya University students are set to hike Mt. Kenya on 14-17 July 2022 to raise awareness of the #O3plus project. The project aims at sensitizing the youth on their #health and #wellbeing. The #O3plus, Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future are the three pillars that the project is pegged on. With support from the Swedish Government, UNESCO and the two institutions have employed different activities to sensitize the young people in institutions of Higher Learning on the #O3plus project.

While giving his opening remarks, the 91�� leader of the #O3plus project , Prof. Walter Jaoko noted that, the students have been through 6 preparatory hikes and they have been given rigorous training by Outdoorer KE, ‘We have popularize the #O3plus here but we now need to shout it out from the Mountain top. Mt. Kenya is symbolic because it’s the highest mountain in Kenya and the flag of Kenya, the constitution have been deposited at the Lenana peak and that’s how much we value our young people’s rights, lives and their future.’

Speaking during the flag-off ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Stephen Kiama recounted his experience of hiking Mt. Kenya. How cold and tough the days and nights were and how the terrain was. He shared his thoughts of giving up along the way. He shared his experience while congratulating the students who have set aside their time to go through the training and to mount the #O3plus flag at the highest peak of the Mt. Kenya.

On his part, the Mount Kenya University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Deogratius Jaganyi, took the time to encourage the students and citing that after the hike experience they will be different individuals who will be tackling life’s challenges differently. He profiled the efforts the University has made towards sensitization and creating awareness of the #O3plus project among the students and the youth in Thika through the University.

Dr. Medhin Tsehaiu, UNAIDS Country Director, noted that the #O3Plus Objectives are promoting the Global AIDS Strategy and contributing to the UNAIDS Triple 95 and Triple 10 initiatives.

UNESCO Regional Director, Prof. Hubert Gijzen, through his speech congratulated the 9 students who are going to hike Mount Kenya and enjoy the alpine trail. He also highlighted the achievements of #O3plus since its inception in 2021. He mentioned that it’s about time we focus on the young people’s health and wellbeing, increase their activity even as we take care of the environment.

Ministry of Sports representative Mr. Festus Njera, pledged the ministry’s support to this students and congratulated them on this feat.

Watch the flag-off ceremony

#heights4health

O3plus, 91��, 91��, Health, wellbeing

Prof. Kiama, Governor Lenku hold consultative meeting ahead of One Health Lab launch

enekesa — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 13:27:50 +0000

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

A consultative meeting was held between the Vice-Chancellor of the 91�� Prof. Stephen Kiama, Kajiado County Governor H.E. Joseph ole Lenku, his Deputy Hon. Martin Moshisho, and the PI of the HORN Project Prof. Mathew Baylis.

The purpose of the meeting was to brief the two main principals on the status of the project ahead of the launch of a refurbished One Health laboratory in Oloitoktok in Kajiado County.

In his remarks, Prof. Baylis gave a highlight on the project saying it aims at promoting and supporting research in the space of one health.

91��, One Health Lab

Research Week 2021

admin77 — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 12:40:27 +0000

Friday, September 10, 2021

Scheduled for November 22-26, 2021.

This is the 4th (fourth) Annual Research Week hosted by the 91��. The week features different conferences covering a diverse range of academic disciplines, one of which is bound to meet your interest and area of expertise. The conferences provide a forum to enable you to present your work, engage with your colleagues, and learn about the latest developments in your field. For students, especially PhD students, Research Week 2021 provides an ideal forum to present and receive positive critique on your work before you submit it for journal publication, or before your dissertation defense.

For more information on how to participate, visit the Research Week 2021 Website.

Research Week 2021, 91��, AVCRIE, Research

History as 91�� Conducts Examinations Remotely

rwambua — Tue, 26 May 2020 17:08:00 +0000

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

The 91�� has today achieved a milestone by successfully conducting its first ever end of semester examinations online.

More than 20 students taking Master of Arts in Environmental Law and Master of Arts in Environmental Policy were able to sit for their examinations right from the comfort of their homes.

The university shifted to online examinations in order to provide students with options to complete their studies at a time when face-to-face exams are impossible to be held because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking to the university’s communications team, Centre for Advanced studies in Environmental Law and Policy (CASELAP) Director, Dr. Collins Odote said, “We used Google platforms to administer our exams-first we invited our students to Google Classroom so that we are able to see all of them and then we used Google Meet to monitor or invigilate the process.”

CASELAP conducts the first virtual exam amid Covid-19

The successful online examinations process follows intense weeks of teaching and learning also conducted virtually via Google Suite, Zoom and Webex among other eLearning platforms.

In his address to staff and students on May 8, 2020, Vice Chancellor Prof. Stephen Kiama said that over 5500 virtual classes had already taken place and were still going on.

While addressing the quality of the online exams, Prof. Kiama said, “As a World Class university all our examination guidelines and procedures have been benchmarked against the global best practice and we shall continue to ensure that they are reliable, consistent and of integrity.”

As part of the quality assurance process the university organized a series of training sessions in mid-March for faculty and administrative staff on eLearning. All these in an effort to ensure students continued to receive high quality education while staying safe from the coronavirus pandemic.

In a bid to bridge digital divide and ensure that no one is left out, the university has negotiated deals with network provider Telkom to provide free data bundles for faculty and students. However for students with poor internet connection, the 91�� continues to provide them with playback lecture videos and courseware packages.

The Vice Chancelor, Prof. Kiama has acknowledged that students with special needs and other disadvantaged groups may face difficulties in undertaking online exams but says their issues shall be addressed individually as they arise.

online teaching, online examination, google meet, 91��

91�� ranks top in Graduate employability

enekesa — Thu, 07 May 2020 07:32:25 +0000

Thursday, May 7, 2020

91�� graduates are the most preferred by Kenyan employers.

This was revealed by CPS International, a marketing and social research firm that surveyed 67 universities and 50 organizations between November and January in 2019/2020 academic year.

In an article published in the Daily Nation and the Standard Newspaper on Thursday May 7^th, the 91�� graduate employability was 38.6% followed by Kenyatta University 30%, Moi 25%, JKUAT 19%, Egerton 18%, Maseno 18% and Technical University at 10%.

The state of the graduate employability in private universities is Mount Kenya University at 18%, USIU-Africa-6%, KCA 6%, Strathmore 5.8%, and Aga Khan 4%

For every 10 jobs, 8 are more likely to be taken up by graduates from public universities especially 91��.

Organizations that took part in the survey mentioned they look out for business and economics, ICT, engineering, social and behavioural Sciences, humanities and medical science graduates.

Universities with the highest employability rate are the most preferred by learners who are already in employment. 91�� supplies 26.8% of working kenyans who are continuing students; they are either employed or self-employed, Kenyatta University came second with 21.3%, Moi (18.1%), JKUAT, (15.2%) and Maseno (13.6%) .

Top 5 private universities with the highest number of working students is Mount Kenya university with 17%, USIU-Africa (6%) , Strathmore (5.8%) and Nazarene and KCA tie at 4.9%.

84% of employers said they look out for work experience, 73% said they look out for skills, hobbies and talents, 67% consider volunteerism while only 21% said they consider internship as important.

The most valued skills among employers are basic numeracy and literacy, ICT, ability to work in a team, positive attitude, strong communication abilities, decisiopn-making and organization skills.

91��, 91��

91�� Staff active in fight against coronavirus

peteroluoch — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 14:10:20 +0000

Friday, April 3, 2020

The 91�� staff has been very actively involved in the fight against coronavirus, says the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Stephen Kiama.

91�� vice-chancellor said researchers were burning the midnight oil to find a solution to the pandemic through different approaches.

“91�� researchers are also writing proposals for research grants required for arresting Covid-19,” Kiama said in a memo dated April 1 to staff and students.

He said several university lecturers are working with the government, giving advice and educating Kenyans on various media platforms about the pandemic.

He said faculty and postgraduate students at the College of Health Sciences continued to offer services at Kenyatta National Hospital and other hospitals in the country.

“The 91�� School of Law, in liaison with the Kenya Law Reform Commission (KLRC) and the Attorney General's Office, is assisting the government to draft the Covid-19 Bill,” he said.

Kiama said the institution’s Senate in a meeting held online on Tuesday underscored that the university was being guided by the philosophy of the need to connect and inspire Kenyans by providing leadership and giving hope.

The VC's response came after the Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua questioned the role that the academia has played in fighting the pandemic.

"Are you sitting in the lab trying to come up with a cure for Covid-19 or you are just seated at home? Because we have very educated people here with papers, they teach people until they get PhDs," Mutua said in a video shared on his Twitter on Wednesday.

Adapted from The Star

Prof. Stephen Kiama - Vice Chancellor, 91��

Retracing the steps of Nobel Peace Laureate Prof Wangari Muta Maathai @80

enekesa — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 06:12:18 +0000

Genesis and working with women

A journey that started over forty years ago in the late 1970s, has continued to excite the environmental landscape in different ways. It can also be equated to a journey where women in Kenya lead by a bold women initiated a process, a movement, an idea that continues to reverberate across the nation and beyond. While the initial idea was to address a local problem of women’s burden looking for water in drying streams, insecure food supply and challenges in getting domestic fuelwood, other critical issues emerged like lack of sufficient democratic space, conflicts and their interlinkage with sustainable development. The Green Belt Movement (GBM) provided the much needed vehicle for women, to form groups that would ultimately help to address the challenge of repairing the environment that provides various ecosystem services and goods like food, fuelwood, water and a clean and healthy environment. While the glue was tree planting, she realized early enough that this needed to go hand in hand with community empowerment and restoration of traditional values including traditional foods that enabled communities to protect their natural ecosystem.

The often noted axiom from her was that by planting trees, we are planting seeds of peace. Planting trees symbolizes protection and conservation of forests; it also symbolizes responsible management of our natural resources as a country. Overtime the work of GBM spread beyond Central Kenya where it had started and to every corner of the country strongly driven community organized groups, mainly women but men were also part of these groups though in smaller numbers. To meet other community needs, entrepreneurship became part of these groups, including honey production, selling of tree seedlings and bakery among other aspects. This helped women become independent and operate without wholly depending on GBM resources; a major source of group independence and with this they were able to touch a bigger part of the community. These groups are very much in existence and active up to today, scattered in different parts of Kenya, and extending the legacy of Prof Wangari Maathai. Today Central Kenya presents a landscape covered with trees on the farms that were the works of these groups. Kenya and indeed the world misses her critical thinking and her deep international respect and capacity to mobilize leaders at all levels to address such global challenges as climate change and more recently the corona virus crisis

Evolving dynamics - “nature does not forgive being brutalized”.

Beyond working with grassroot community women groups, she trained her efforts to protection of ecosystem in gazetted ecosystems where communities had little impact then. While they could plant trees and take care of them on their farms, the public forests were under management of central government. In the 1990s, she expanded her efforts to include protection of forests, which were being degraded through illegal allocation and occupation. Forest degradation was suicidal for the country as the very problem that she started to tackle in the 1970s was coming back through forest degradation, now affecting many citizens and economy. The fight for Karura Forest in Nairobi is well documented among other forest ecosystems including the Mt Kenya Forest , the Aberdares, the Mau Forest Complex, and Urban Forests among other public land resources. She extended her fight to wetlands encroachment and open public land along together with other stakeholders, with a strong emphasis that environment fights back, when degraded; a fact she emphasized often. The effects of forest degradation in the 1990s has been witnessed with water scarcity in several parts of the country as exemplified by drying rivers, “nature does not forgive being brutalized”. The fight for Uhuru Park as a public good is well documented although it is now threatened by road infrastructure development. Uhuru Park and Karura Forest are living legacy of her fight for public good, where she was brutalized by the Kenya Police who were protecting those who would despoil the national heritage. This pushed her cause on the world map as an international celebrity. While this continued, she kept strong touch with grass-root women in Kenya and in the rest of the world, on her fight for environment and empowerment. These sites continue to evoke strong emotional attachment to citizens and have continued to inspire environmental protection movements when any threats emerge. At the same time, her fight for the integrity of ecosystems inspired several community groups across the then threatened ecosystems, with the sole aim of protecting forest ecosystems. These groups formed grassroot movements, which provided the much need support to her national effort and today many of these have transformed into community forest associations (CFAs) and continue to provide the much needed support in forest protection and community empowerment. In one of her speeches, she said, “Today we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its life-support system. We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own - indeed to embrace the whole of creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder. Recognizing that sustainable development, democracy and peace are indivisible is an idea whose time has come”. This is still very much relevant today and very much in line with the global call for Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR), that aims at healing those degraded landscapes.

Democratic space

In her fight for democratic space to spearhead her ideas at national level, she founded a Green Political Party, The Mazingira Green Party of Kenya (“Mazingira” is Swahili for environment). It was through this political party that she was elected to parliament, appointed an assistant minister for environment, and from there, increased her voice on environmental conservation. Like other green parties globally, it has low uptake. There are still very few green parties in Africa and their political voice is low despite formation of association of green political parties of Africa in 2011. The principles of green politics include social justice, environmentalism and non-violence.

Legacy Living from GBM Works

Working with communities over time, she realised the need to connect trained university graduates knowledge and community willingness to heal the land. In her GBM work, she noted a need for multidisciplinary teams, each team member contributing something to the learning process. Community members providing useful local knowledge and local solutions and graduates providing technical knowledge. One of the lessons she learnt was that graduate students were trained in their respective silo disciplinary mentality and had poor knowledge of what the community problems were, how to solve these problems and pass over the knowledge by talking to barely literate women on deep scientific soil and botanical topics in language they could understand.

She shared how she had come to realize that there is a disconnect between the quality of graduate students and the field in which they were expected to work in; embodied by the mode of content delivery at the university. The mode normally dissected content into clearly demarcated disciplines (lacking in inter-disciplinarily), which were delivered by experts who were really/usually ignorant of other related disciplines. When she hired fresh graduates at the Green Belt Movement, she realized they lacked appreciation of reality of nature, environment and people, all of which are necessary to succeed in their employment.

This challenge is still common today due to limited exposure of University students to problems facing the community, which she realized could be solved by experiential learning. Considering the vast amount of information available in the society both inside and outside the university; if we motivated learners from university and community could sit together to exchange information, a much higher level of learning would be achieved. Prof Maathai had tested this mode of learning over and over again during the training sessions with communities that she periodically held for new recruits for the Green Belt and community leaders. She found it to work exceedingly well and this is what she referred to as experiential learning.

Legacy Living on Wangari Maathai Institute of Peace and Environmental Studies

The genesis of the Institute started over lunch on 27th July 2008, when Prof. Wangari Maathai, Prof Peter Gehr from University of Bern, Prof. Vertistine Mbaya and Prof. S.G. Kiama met for lunch at Fairview Hotel in Nairobi. Prof. Kiama requested Prof. Maathai to consider doing something with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine particularly in mentoring and motivating students. Prof Maathai responded in the affirmative and requested for another meeting where she could share some of the things that she had also been thinking about concerning engaging her Almer matter, the 91��. In the subsequent meeting it became clear that Wangari had a bigger vision– The Vision of the Institute.

Following this sharing of her vision, the 91�� and the Green Belt Movement worked with her to realize her dream and in December 2009, the 91�� Council established the Institute. The Institute sits on a 50-acre land which was allocated by the 91�� Council. With funding from the African Development Bank, through the Ministry of Education, Science & Technology, the construction of Phase I of the Institute commenced in 2016 and was completed in early 2018.

In February 2010, the 91�� appointed Prof Maathai, the Founder Distinguished Chair of the newly established Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies and Prof. Kiama as the Director, current 91��, Vice Chancellor. Wangari was very convinced that the establishment of the Institute would bring to reality her vision, a real possibility of training transformational leaders who would bridge theory with practice in the fields of peace and environmental governance and its linkages with democracy. The Institute was very close to her heart and she has shared some of her thoughts on it in her last book “Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World “.

To realize this dream today the Institute, has two major programmes; at Masters and Doctoral level that train students from diverse background paying strong attention to experiential learning that taking students out for fieldwork several times (at least once a month) in the course of the semester. Today at WMI, the graduate students both at masters and doctoral level are exposed to community classrooms from time to time, based on resources availability. Specifically at Masters level, a residential session is organized with community members residing with them, learning from each other and exchanging information on issues confronting them and exploring possible solutions. This involves students from diverse disciplines and nationality, mixing cultures, knowledge and traditions for a common purposes. In addition the Institute has positioned itself as a Peace Centre by having peace mediation labs, which are designed to promote cultures of peace, which Prof Wangari Maathai noted is necessary in sustainable development. GBM and WMI continue to work closely by collaborating in various issues affecting society including environment, promotion of cultures of peace and advocacy.

So @80 Prof. Wangari would have been very happy and satisfied to see her legacy ideas propagated through the continuous community and other stakeholders engagement by GBM, and the symbiotic links with WMI, the so far successful training of environmental stewards by the Institute, the design of the Institute based on her ideas that continues to inspire many and the national and international respect that she still commands. May her soul rest in peace.

WMI, Wangari maathai, 91��

91���� - 91����

91���� claims Kenya’s Top Spot in World University Rankings

91���� participates in the 34th Annual EAIE Conference

University Of KwaZulu Natal, SA benchmarks with 91���� on reforms