NAIROBI - More than a dozen Kenyan lawmakers from the opposition coalition walked out of parliament as Finance Minister Njuguna Ndung'u started reading his budget speech on Thursday, televised proceedings showed.

The opposition has rejected a raft of tax hikes proposed by President William Ruto's government. The lawmakers left while shouting, prompting Speaker Moses Wetangula to call out "Order! Order".

The lawmakers assembled and began singing at the gardens of parliament, television images showed, while Ndung'u launched into his presentation of the government's spending plans for the 2023/24 (July-June) fiscal year.

(Reporting by Duncan Miriri and George Obulutsa; Editing by James Macharia Chege)