Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza has said she is ready to be called Madam Zakayo for collecting the highest revenue in the country.
Speaking on Thursday during President William Ruto's tour in the county, the governor suggested that she be named Madam Zakayo.
"Sisi kaunti ya Meru Mheshimiwa rais tumekuwa number one Kenya mzima kwa kukusanya ushuru. Nilisema hata kama watakuita Zakayo, mimi waniite Madam Zakayo, hapa tumeongoza Kenya mzima," she said.
( Mr President, Meru County has been ranked number one in collecting high revenues. We are leading the whole country. I said if they call you Zakayo, then they should call me Madam Zakayo).
The governor said that she has been working hard to develop the county.
She said her county has been one of the best in terms of development.
In May 2023, the name Zakayo surfaced on social platforms in the wake of new tax proposals made by the Ruto-led administration.
They likened Ruto to Zacchaeus, who climbed the sycamore tree to see Jesus, according to the Bible.
In November 2023, a survey by Infotrak ranked the Meru governor number eight with 63 per cent in terms of performance.
Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya and his Homa Bay counterpart Gladys Wanga were named the best-performing governors in the country.
The two emerged top in a list of top 25 governors, where they scored an average of 70 per cent each.
The survey dubbed CountyTrak was conducted between July - September 2023, covering all 47 counties, 290 constituencies and 1,450 wards with an overall sample of 58,748.
The first survey was conducted between July and August 2023 involving 36,200 participants.
Data was collected through Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews.
The residents were asked to rate their governors performance using the 1-10 Likert scale, where one was very poor and 10 was excellent.