Makueni residents the happiest in Kenya, Nairobians among unhappiest citizens – Nairobi News

Makueni County residents are the happiest lot in the country, a new survey has revealed.

According to a poll by Infotrak, Makueni leads in the county happiness index at 64.4 per cent, followed by West Pokot with 62.4 percent, Machakos 62.1 percent and Bomet at 61.8 per cent.

Infotrak’s CEO, Angela Ambitho, says Makueni happiness index is attributed to a calm political environment and their involvement in development projects.

“Makueni County was at number 43 in our first index report and that is because the county government was going through hard times from the County Assembly, but now that they have stability it has resulted into peaceful coexistence which gives the county residents a sense of calm,” Ambitho said.

Mombasa, Nairobi, Trans Nzoia and Taita Taveta counties are in the bottom four, with low happiness indices of 52.6 percent, 52.5 percent, 52.0 percent and 48.9 percent respectively.

UNHEALTHY POLITICKING

Lack of public participation in what is happening in these four counties and unhealthy politicking is what has been attributed for low happiness index.

Overall, the country’s happiness index is rated at 57.3 percent. The survey comes just a few months after the United Nations ranked Kenya among the unhappiest countries in the world.

Kenya was ranked in position 121 out of 156 countries in the Global Happiness Report that was released in late March. According to the survey Kenya’s happiness index at the time stood at 4.583 out of the possible 10, according to the United Nations’ 8th World Happiness Report.

Kenya however ranked the happiest nation in East Africa ahead of Uganda (126), Burundi (140), Tanzania (148), Rwanda (150) and South Sudan (152).