Waziri Mayai Wa Maradhi
Member
- Jan 28, 2026
- 81
- 36
Kenya is facing a PhD deficit that is affecting the rollout of the human capital necessary to drive development through science, research and innovation.
Data from the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) shows that Kenya possesses significant talent and institutional presence, but systemic gaps in doctoral training are hampering the development of a strong workforce to drive the science, research and innovation (SRI) system.
APHRC Executive Director Dr Catherine Kyobutungi said Kenya produces fewer than 1,000 PhDs annually, far below what is required for industrial transformation.
“We are at 23 per cent of the target of having 1,000 PhDs per one million, and in some universities, 33 per cent of faculty who are supposed to have PhDs according to established guidelines do not have a PhD,” she said.
She spoke on Friday during the launch of the Kenya Science, Research and Innovation (SRI) Synergy Blueprint at Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi.
Kyobutungi said the gap is much bigger among females due to limited mentorship and what she described as a “leaky pipeline”.
“At Masters level, we have a 50-50 gender balance. By the time we reach associate professorship level, we are down to 19 per cent. So, our women are entering the pipeline and then they are leaking out at a very high rate,” Kyobutungi said.
She said there is a need to establish reasons behind this trend, even as she admitted that limited, non-standardised doctoral data prevents targeted interventions and masks high attrition rates.
According to APHRC, apart from low doctoral output and weak data systems to shape interventions to address the human capital shortfall, Kenya’s SRI ecosystem faces four other structural weaknesses.
This includes the absence of strong postdoctoral and structured transition pathways, which creates instability for early-career researchers, leading to limited absorption capacity and increasing brain drain risks among many PhD graduates.
An academic workload crisis, where rapid enrolment growth produces unsustainable student-to-staff ratios in public institutions, leads to heavy teaching workloads and limits research time, thereby reducing national research productivity.
The SRI Synergy Blueprint also identified a lack of a unified framework to coordinate research careers across ministries, universities and research institutes, saying promotion systems, mobility pathways and retention incentives remain inconsistent.
According to APHRC, "these are not individual institutional failures; they reflect the absence of a coordinated national research workforce architecture."
It stated that in order to fulfil its responsibilities, a nationally competitive SRI system requires a robust research staff and fair access to cutting-edge research facilities.
Data from the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) shows that Kenya possesses significant talent and institutional presence, but systemic gaps in doctoral training are hampering the development of a strong workforce to drive the science, research and innovation (SRI) system.
APHRC Executive Director Dr Catherine Kyobutungi said Kenya produces fewer than 1,000 PhDs annually, far below what is required for industrial transformation.
“We are at 23 per cent of the target of having 1,000 PhDs per one million, and in some universities, 33 per cent of faculty who are supposed to have PhDs according to established guidelines do not have a PhD,” she said.
She spoke on Friday during the launch of the Kenya Science, Research and Innovation (SRI) Synergy Blueprint at Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi.
Kyobutungi said the gap is much bigger among females due to limited mentorship and what she described as a “leaky pipeline”.
“At Masters level, we have a 50-50 gender balance. By the time we reach associate professorship level, we are down to 19 per cent. So, our women are entering the pipeline and then they are leaking out at a very high rate,” Kyobutungi said.
She said there is a need to establish reasons behind this trend, even as she admitted that limited, non-standardised doctoral data prevents targeted interventions and masks high attrition rates.
According to APHRC, apart from low doctoral output and weak data systems to shape interventions to address the human capital shortfall, Kenya’s SRI ecosystem faces four other structural weaknesses.
This includes the absence of strong postdoctoral and structured transition pathways, which creates instability for early-career researchers, leading to limited absorption capacity and increasing brain drain risks among many PhD graduates.
An academic workload crisis, where rapid enrolment growth produces unsustainable student-to-staff ratios in public institutions, leads to heavy teaching workloads and limits research time, thereby reducing national research productivity.
The SRI Synergy Blueprint also identified a lack of a unified framework to coordinate research careers across ministries, universities and research institutes, saying promotion systems, mobility pathways and retention incentives remain inconsistent.
According to APHRC, "these are not individual institutional failures; they reflect the absence of a coordinated national research workforce architecture."
It stated that in order to fulfil its responsibilities, a nationally competitive SRI system requires a robust research staff and fair access to cutting-edge research facilities.