Money can’t you buy you happiness, so goes the famous old English phrase and true to its assertion, a new study has revealed that poor Kenyans are happier than their rich counterparts.

According to the study, Sauti ya Wananchi ‘citizens values’ by Twaweza East Africa, 73 percent of Kenya’s poorest are happy, compared to 72 percent of Kenya’s richest.

Generally, the study revealed that seven out of 10 citizens (71 percent) say that all things considered, they are happy with their lives in Kenya and, one in 20 (five per cent) say they are unhappy, and one in four (24 percent) that they are neither happy nor unhappy.

The study also revealed some peculiar findings; where for instance 16.75 of those interviewed think it’s justifiable for a man to beat his wife while 11% of women do not have a problem being beaten by their husbands.

In addition, 70 percent of Kenyans would not be happy living next to people who consume large amounts of alcohol while 87 percent of would have an issue with living next to drug addicts, and 90% have a problem with homosexuals.

Quite encouraging, only 16% of the respondents said they would have a problem living next door to someone who’s HIV+, which is quite remarkable especially considering that stigma has been one of the biggest challenges facing people living with HIV/AIDS.

The Survey was based on responses from 1,701 people and was conducted in January of 2017.