nation.co.ke
Kenyans have been sulking more than Ugandans over the last three years, a new report indicates.
The United Nations report said that Ugandans were the happiest people in the East African region in the last three years beating Kenya to the first position among the five nations in the region. Kenya is ranked second in EAC.
The study carried out over a period of three years beginning 2010 encouraged governments to put in place ways to encourage citizens to be happy and not sulk always.
Uganda’s first ranking in the region makes a joke of the strong economic status of Kenya—economists put Kenya as the strongest economically in the region.
However, that seems not to have translated to the daily wellbeing of the 40 million plus citizens who now grapple with high cost of basic commodities owing to a new tax law.
Kenya comes second, 123rd globally— an improvement from last report’s 134th ranking— then Tanzania (151), Rwanda (152) and lastly Burundi (153). The northern neighbour, Ethiopia (119), is ranked just above Uganda.
Globally, the Danes are the happiest people followed by Norwegians then the Swiss, Dutch (Netherlands) and the Swedes close the top five happiest people on the planet.
United States with its super power status only ranked 17 below comparably smaller nations as Panama (15) and Austria (8).
Angolans were found to be the happiest in the continent but came 61st in the world followed by Algerians (73), the Libyans (78), Nigeria (82), and Ghana (86) Togolese are the least happy and is placed last (156) in the list and just on top of the West-African country, is Benin (155).
The report was conducted by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), under the auspices of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
GLOBAL HAPPINESS
It is the second study following the debut World Happiness Report, released in 2012 ahead of the UN high-level meeting on Happiness and Well-being. Denmark was also ranked the first in the pioneer report followed by Finland.
The first report drew international attention and condemnation alike but was considered a landmark because it was the first survey of the state of global happiness.
“The Report also shows the major beneficial side-effects of happiness. Happy people live longer, are more productive, earn more, and are also better citizens. Well-being should be developed both for its own sake and for its side-effects,” the SDSN said when it released the study on Tuesday.
According to the report, people in 150 countries were half-happy and half-angry hence falling just on the half-mark.
“The World Happiness Report 2013 reveals fascinating trends in the data judging just how happy countries really are. On a scale running from 0 to 10, people in over 150 countries, surveyed by Gallup over the period 2010-12, reveal a population-weighted average score of 5.1 (out of 10)” says SDSN.