Christina Shusho, one of East Africa’s most popular gospel musicians, has caused a stir in Kenya after she released a teaser of her new song titled Zakayo.
Some people in Kenya, where the Tanzanian singer has a mass following, playfully speculated that the song could be about Kenya’s President William Ruto.
Some Kenyans mockingly refer to President Ruto as Zakayo – Swahili for the biblical figure Zacchaeus, who is portrayed in the Bible s a greedy tax collector who climbed a tree to see Jesus.
In Swahili, Shusho sings, “There was a man named Zakayo, the chief of tax collectors and a wealthy man. He sought to see what kind of person Jesus was…”
Mr Ruto earned the Zakayo knickname because he has introduced a raft of new taxes, and raised old ones, since he being elected president in August 2022. It has made him unpopular with many Kenyans who believe he has betrayed his campaign promise to champion the interests of “hustlers” – those who struggle financially.
