It is found in west and southwest Ethiopia as well as on Mount Kulal in north Kenya.

The Kafa white-eye was formally described in 1902 by the German ornithologist Oscar Neumann from a specimen collected near Anderaccha in the Kaffa region of southwest Ethiopia.

[2][3] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek zōstēros meaning "belt" or "girdle" with ōpos meaning "eye".

[4] The specific epithet kaffensis is from Kaffa Province, a former kingdom in south-western Ethiopia.

It was elevated to species status based on the divergence of the mitochondrial DNA sequence and differences in plumage.