In a country with high rates of unemployment, Kenyan employers are particularly picky on who they want in their workforce. Employers want the top graduates from the best universities in the country, to avoid high on-the-job-training cost and incompetency in terms of skills/knowledge. Universities with the highest employability rate for their graduates are also the most preferred by learners who are already in employment and those who are enrolling for undergraduate programmes.
The University of Nairobi is the most preferred university in Kenya by employers, supplying the highest number of graduates to Kenya’s job market and the top go to source for new staff. For every 10 jobs available, eight are likely to be taken up by public university graduates, especially those from the University of Nairobi, while the other two will likely go to private institutions like Mount Kenya University.
Here are the top 10 most preferred universities in Kenya by employers.
| Rank | University | Score |
| 1. | University of Nairobi | 38.6% |
| 2. | Kenyatta University | 30.0% |
| 3. | Moi University | 25.1% |
| 4. | Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology | 19.8% |
| 5. | Egerton University | 18.3% |
| 6. | Maseno University | 18.1% |
| 7. | Mount Kenya University | 17.1% |
| 8. | Technical University of Kenya | 10.2% |
| 9. | Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology | 6.9% |
| 10. | United States International University | 6.2% |
