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Kenya vs Lesotho

On research quality in 2022-now, Kenya ranks #57 in the world and Lesotho #164, of 189 countries. Kenya stands higher in 17 of the 17 fields both publish in, Lesotho in 0.

Research profiles alike: 0.82very similar shapes of research, whatever their size. How it is measured

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Kenya

World rank, 2022-now
#57
#58 all time
Works, 2022-now
29k
fractional
Top-10% rate
5.7%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
70%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Safety Research, Business and International Management, Library and Information Sciences.

Lesotho

World rank, 2022-now
#164
#158 all time
Works, 2022-now
516
fractional
Top-10% rate
7.0%
share of its work among the world's most cited
Open access
56%
of its works free to read

Strongest relative focus: Archeology, Equine, Linguistics and Language.

Who leads, measure by measure?

Kenya leads on 4 of 9 measures: research quality, output, citations per work and open access. Lesotho leads on 3 of 9 measures: excellence for its fields, top-10% rate and growth. The two are level on institutions in the world top 100 and international co-authorship.

Kenya 42 level3 Lesotho
  1. #57Research qualityworld rank of 189 countries, 2022-now#164
  2. 0.73×Excellence for its fieldsits top-10% rate against what its topics predict; 1.00× is as expected0.85×
  3. 29kOutputfractional works, 2022-now516
  4. 5.7%Top-10% rateshare of its works among the world's most cited7.0%
  5. 12.3Citations per workall time, per fractional work8.1
  6. 0World top 100institutions it holds among the world's best 1000
  7. 70%Open accessof its works free to read, all time56%
  8. 26%Internationalof its works written with co-authors abroad, all time26%
  9. +28%Growthworks in 2022-25 against 2018-21; half a bar is no change+52%

A rank is drawn as its standing: the longer the bar, the nearer the top. Anything else is drawn against the larger of the two, and two values a hair apart are called level. Quality, excellence and the top-10% rate are explained in the methodology.

Who leads in each field?

Kenya stands higher in 17 of 17 fields, Lesotho in 0. Each bar is that side's standing among all countries ranked in the field: the full bar is first place.

Kenya 170 Lesotho
  1. #39Agricultural and Biological Sciences-
  2. #64Arts and Humanities-
  3. #57Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology-
  4. #69Business, Management and Accounting-
  5. #73Computer Science-
  6. #66Decision Sciences-
  7. #65Economics, Econometrics and Finance-
  8. #79Engineering-
  9. #58Environmental Science-
  10. #57Health Professions-
  11. #36Immunology and Microbiology-
  12. #77Materials Science-
  13. #52Mathematics-
  14. #44Medicine-
  15. #41Nursing-
  16. #70Psychology-
  17. #71Social Sciences-

Standing is the percentile of world rank within each field, 2022-now; the printed number is the rank itself. A dash means the field is too small there to rank. How sides are compared.

The numbers behind each field

Click a heading to sort. The side that does better in a pair of columns is shaded: a lower rank, a higher rate, more works.

Field Kenya rankLesotho rank Kenya top 10%Lesotho top 10% Kenya worksLesotho works
Agricultural and Biological Sciences #39 - 9.6% - 3.1k -
Arts and Humanities #64 - 7.2% - 720 -
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology #57 - 8.2% - 705 -
Business, Management and Accounting #69 - 2.6% - 3.3k -
Computer Science #73 - 4.8% - 1.3k -
Decision Sciences #66 - 3.1% - 710 -
Economics, Econometrics and Finance #65 - 3.4% - 1.8k -
Engineering #79 - 5.8% - 1.4k -
Environmental Science #58 - 6.5% - 2k -
Health Professions #57 - 7.5% - 1.1k -
Immunology and Microbiology #36 - 9.0% - 308 -
Materials Science #77 - 5.0% - 232 -
Mathematics #52 - 5.7% - 352 -
Medicine #44 - 7.1% - 3.9k -
Nursing #41 - 6.2% - 393 -
Psychology #70 - 5.0% - 1.1k -
Social Sciences #71 - 4.7% - 6.1k -

What is each known for?

The keywords that describe each side's research, by fractional works in 2022-now and weighted toward what it does more of than the world.

Kenya

▲ more of its work than of the world's◆ about the world's share▼ less than the world's
All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Climate Change1,810▲ 1.98×120 topics
  2. Sustainability1,751▲ 2.1×122 topics
  3. Epidemiology1,518◆ 1.13×136 topics
  4. Globalization1,252▲ 1.90×144 topics
  5. Supply Chain Management1,068▲ 3.5×25 topics
  6. Innovation1,016▲ 2.9×76 topics
  7. Poverty Reduction982▲ 22×6 topics
  8. Risk Management961▲ 6.0×17 topics
  9. Social Capital923▲ 5.3×20 topics
  10. Sustainable Development899▲ 1.71×96 topics
  11. Education894▲ 1.55×120 topics
  12. Economic Growth864▲ 3.1×32 topics
  13. Leadership820▲ 5.0×33 topics
  14. Corporate Governance798▲ 3.2×29 topics
  15. Development713▲ 5.9×20 topics
  16. Economic Development671▲ 2.5×50 topics
  17. Gender Equality655▲ 6.9×19 topics
  18. Sustainable Agriculture606▲ 5.8×16 topics
  19. Gender Inequality578▲ 12×7 topics
  20. Food Security577▲ 3.2×25 topics
  21. Smallholder Farmers569▲ 8.0×6 topics
  22. Social Networks560▲ 6.1×13 topics
  23. Community Health Workers555▲ 19×2 topics
  24. Rural Development550▲ 4.8×21 topics
  25. Adaptation547▲ 5.5×15 topics
  26. Maternal Mortality542▲ 7.2×5 topics
  27. Performance Measurement483▲ 5.4×7 topics
  28. Health Inequalities478▲ 12×5 topics
  29. Social Protection469▲ 31×2 topics
  30. Primary Education469▲ 35×2 topics
  31. Conditional Cash Transfers469▲ 39×1 topic
  32. School Subsidies469▲ 39×1 topic
  33. Socio-economic Factors463▲ 12×3 topics
  34. Child Mortality458▲ 19×1 topic
  35. Health Systems458▲ 19×1 topic
  36. Empowerment383▲ 12×6 topics
  37. Financial Constraints374▲ 11×2 topics
  38. Poverty Alleviation365▲ 11×3 topics
  39. Financial Inclusion365▲ 21×1 topic
  40. Microfinance365▲ 21×1 topic

Lesotho

▲ more of its work than of the world's◆ about the world's share▼ less than the world's
All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Globalization35▲ 3.1×43 topics
  2. Human Rights27▲ 4.5×33 topics
  3. Colonialism25▲ 9.1×11 topics
  4. Education23▲ 2.3×29 topics
  5. Mental Health21▲ 2.6×19 topics
  6. Higher Education20▲ 6.5×12 topics
  7. Economic Growth18▲ 3.9×16 topics
  8. Poverty Reduction18▲ 24×5 topics
  9. Nationalism18▲ 6.9×6 topics
  10. Social Justice16▲ 4.5×19 topics
  11. Technology Integration14▲ 7.9×6 topics
  12. Social Capital14▲ 4.7×12 topics
  13. Development14▲ 6.6×13 topics
  14. Teacher Training14▲ 3.8×10 topics
  15. Gender Equality13▲ 8.0×10 topics
  16. Political Economy13▲ 8.6×9 topics
  17. Social Impact12▲ 5.5×6 topics
  18. Gender Inequality12▲ 15×5 topics
  19. Multilingualism12▲ 12×3 topics
  20. Bilingual Education11▲ 17×2 topics
  21. Language Policy11▲ 14×2 topics
  22. Reflective Practice11▲ 10×5 topics
  23. Professional Development11▲ 9.2×8 topics
  24. Teacher Professional Development11▲ 11×4 topics
  25. Student Perceptions11▲ 10×7 topics
  26. Governance10▲ 5.3×8 topics
  27. Conditional Cash Transfers10▲ 48×1 topic
  28. School Subsidies10▲ 48×1 topic
  29. Sociolinguistics10▲ 9.3×3 topics
  30. Lifelong Learning10▲ 7.9×7 topics
  31. South Africa9▲ 56×4 topics
  32. Judicial Review9▲ 18×2 topics
  33. Inequality9▲ 6.6×4 topics
  34. Antiretroviral Therapy8▲ 8.9×6 topics
  35. Environmental Governance8▲ 21×4 topics
  36. Land Reform8▲ 30×2 topics
  37. Equality8▲ 24×4 topics
  38. Legal Research8▲ 12×2 topics
  39. Consumer Protection8▲ 31×2 topics
  40. Public Participation8▲ 61×2 topics

Size is fractional works in the topics tagged with each word; colour is the word's share of the side's work against its share of the world's. Each word links to the topic it comes from most.

How has their output grown?

Kenya has out-published Lesotho every year since 1980.

still counting5k10kKenya7,818 in 2025Lesotho132 in 20251990200020102020

Fractional works per year.

Their share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share, because all of science grows. Each line is a side as a percentage of every work published that year.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Kenya0.13% in 2025Lesotho0.0022% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

The share of each side's works, year by year, that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. The average of all institutions is 10.0% (why not 10%).

still counting10%20%Lesotho7.0% in 2025Kenya6.3% in 2025200020102020

A year with under 1% of the side's peak output is left out: a rate over a handful of papers says nothing. The latest years are still being cited.

Who holds more of the world's best institutions?

A country's average quality and the number of institutions it holds at the very top can disagree, and both are worth knowing. The counts are nested: an institution in the top 50 is also in the top 100.

Kenya 05 level0 Lesotho
  1. 0In the world top 500
  2. 0In the top 1000
  3. 0In the top 5000
  4. 0In the top 1,0000
  5. #51Elite capacityrank among 204 countries#51

Institutions ranked on research quality, 2022-now. Elite capacity counts a country's institutions by their worldwide rank, weighted so a place at #1 counts for more than one at #480.

Which publishes more research, Kenya or Lesotho?

Kenya publishes 56.9× as much research as Lesotho in 2022-now (29k against 516 fractional works).

Whose research has more impact, Kenya or Lesotho?

7.0% of Lesotho's research reaches the world's top 10% most cited, against 5.7% for Kenya.

Is Kenya or Lesotho growing faster?

Output in 2022-25 was +52% against 2018-21 for Lesotho, and +28% for Kenya.

Which has more open access research, Kenya or Lesotho?

70% of Kenya's research is free to read, against 56% of Lesotho's.

Which has more world-class institutions, Kenya or Lesotho?

Kenya holds 0 of the world's top 100 research institutions and Lesotho 0; in the top 1,000 it is 0 against 0.

Which institutions lead in each country?

The highest-ranked institutions on each side on research quality, 2022-now. The percentage is each institution's own top-10% rate: the share of its works that are among the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. Every figure stands alone, so they do not add up to 100%.

Kenya

  1. 1Kenya Medical Research Institute12.2% top 10% · 708 works
  2. 2University of Nairobi4.8% top 10% · 3.1k works
  3. 3Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology3.7% top 10% · 2.4k works
  4. 4Moi University4.9% top 10% · 1.2k works
  5. 5Kisii University4.7% top 10% · 571 works
  6. 6Kenyatta University3.1% top 10% · 2.9k works

Lesotho

  1. 1National University of Lesotho6.7% top 10% · 482 works

The number is the rank inside the country. The track on each row is the top-10% rate; the tick is the average of all institutions, 10.0% (how it is set): teal above it, red below. The ranking is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each institution's own topics predict and adds a small reward for size, so the rates do not fall in order.

Who are the top researchers on each side?

The most cited researchers on each side, among those ranked.

Kenya

  1. 1 Robert William Snow #6,135 worldwide 58k citations · 677 works
  2. 2 Edwine Barasa #13,107 worldwide 9.2k citations · 311 works
  3. 3 Kevin Marsh #18,105 worldwide 58k citations · 689 works
  4. 4 J. Anthony G. Scott #24,316 worldwide 21k citations · 396 works
  5. 5 Menale B. Kassie #24,373 worldwide 14k citations · 263 works

Lesotho

  1. 1 Rethabile Rosemary Molefi #560,261 worldwide 518 citations · 24 works
  2. 2 John Batani #1,060,934 worldwide 1.2k citations · 55 works
  3. 3 Lucy Nthabiseng Makoae #1,254,679 worldwide 1.6k citations · 23 works
  4. 4 Makhulu Alice Makumane #1,641,636 worldwide 171 citations · 27 works
  5. 5 Ramaele Moshoeshoe #2,029,182 worldwide 69 citations · 18 works