A section of Kenyan opposition lawmakers walked out of parliament chambers on Thursday as the finance minister started reading this year's budget that has been criticised over a range of proposed tax hikes.
It is the first budget since President William Ruto took office last year following the country's presidential election.
His government has drawn up a 3.6 trillion shilling ($25.7 billion) budget for 2023/24 with new or increased taxes outlined in a separate finance bill expected to generate $2.1 billion in revenue.
A key opposition MP, Junet Mohamed, told journalists outside the parliament that they walked out because ''we do not believe in the budget.''
Treasury Minister Njuguna Ndung'u briefly halted his speech as the lawmakers left. He then continued with the budget presentation.
Overburden citizens
Earlier, the Kenyan opposition said tax proposals in the budget would overburden the citizens who were already suffering from economic hardship.
But the government said the new taxes were intended to generate more internal revenues to reduce external debt burden.
Kenyans are already feeling the pinch from soaring prices for basic necessities, along with a sharp drop in the value of the local currency and the worst drought in four decades.
Economic growth slowed last year to 4.8 percent from 7.6 percent in 2021, reflecting the global fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the drought buffeting the vital agriculture sector.
Debt mountain
Kenya is also sitting on a public debt mountain of almost $70 billion or about 67 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and its repayment costs have jumped as the shilling sinks to record lows of more than 1 39 to the dollar.
Earlier this year, the opposition staged several anti-government protests over the cost of living crisis which degenerated into sometimes deadly street clashes between police and demonstrators.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has nevertheless hailed the government for responding "promptly" to the economic challenges it faces and for "prudent" spending.
