NAIROBI, KENYA
Kenya’s happiness levels have largely remained unchanged despite easing
pandemic pains, a UN survey found.
President Uhuru Kenyatta (L) and his Deputy William Ruto have led the country for almost 10 years now |
The annual World Happiness
Report ranks Kenya at number 119 out of 146 countries in global happiness,
barely unchanged from 121 out of 149 countries surveyed in 2021.
The findings of the 10th
report by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network suggest Kenya is the
27th unhappiest nation in the world.
Respondents cited the
perception of widespread corruption in government as the biggest driver of
negative emotions.
In Africa, the country has
been ranked 23rd in the report which covers three years through 2021, a
position lower than the year before.
The survey findings, released
Friday ahead of the annual International Day of Happiness celebrated Sunday
(March 20), showed a slight decline in the measure used to ask Kenyans to rate
their life from 4.607 previously to 4.543.
The report ranks Uganda two
places ahead of Kenya at number 117. Rwanda was ranked the most unhappy country
in the six-nation East African Community bloc and fourth-worst globally ahead
of Zimbabwe, Lebanon and Afghanistan (the unhappiest in the world).
Tanzania is ranked at number
139 out of the 146 countries globally, while Ethiopia is at position 131.
The researchers arrive at the
rankings by asking respondents in the countries surveyed to assess and rate
life with a score of 10 as the best possible life for them and zero as the
worst possible condition.
Assessment of happiness that
can be used by countries to improve the well-being of citizens and enact
policies for sustainable development.
GDP per capita, social
support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption are the
variable factors the researchers use in explaining variations in life
evaluations across the countries surveyed.
Kenya has for years been in
global spotlight for corruption largely in public procurement, with former
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) chairman Philip Kinisu estimating
in March 2016 that as much as a third of the annual budget is lost to graft.
This translates to about Sh900
billion every year, or Sh2.45 billion daily, given the annual budget of about
Sh3 trillion. President Uhuru Kenyatta appeared to acknowledge this in January
2021 when he said that corruption sucks about Sh2 billion daily from public
coffers.
The Happiness report shows Kenyans
assigned a score of 1.03 on GDP per capita — used to compare average living
standards and economic wellbeing of individuals in different countries.
The score on the freedom to
make life choices was 0.44, social support (0.61), healthy life expectancy
(0.40) and generosity (0.32).
Globally, Finland has been
named the happiest country for the fifth year in a row, followed by Denmark,
Iceland, Switzerland and the Netherlands in that order of top five.
Mauritius, which is ranked 52nd in the world, has been named the happiest in Africa, followed by Libya, Ivory Coast, South Africa and the Gambia.
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