Troy Fitrell has been running the Bureau of African Affairs in the absence of an officially nominated assistant secretary of State under Trump.

Fitrell will leave his post on July 15, one source with direct knowledge of the decision told Reuters. It was not immediately clear why he is leaving.

Critics have accused the government of using the budget to increase indirect taxes and infringe on privacy by empowering the tax authority to spy on people's bank accounts and mobile money transactions. But Mbadi said on Wednesday the revenue authority must be empowered to collect taxes to run the country.

In place of hiking individual taxes, Mbadi is looking to widen the tax base, improve compliance and cut spending, said John Kuria, a tax specialist and partner at Kody Africa.
Despite government attempts to curb expenditure and crack down on fraud, Kuria said, "I think we're still going to have a significant funding shortfall."

While the proposed budget outlines credible measures to reduce the fiscal deficit, the challenge lies in implementation, which Kenya has struggled with historically, said Shani Smit-Lengton, Senior Economist at Oxford Economics Africa.

This often results in mid-year revisions through supplementary budgets, which erode fiscal credibility, Smit-Lengton told Reuters via email.

Kenya said in March it had applied for a new lending programme from the International Monetary Fund after abandoning the final review on the previous IMF programme.

In February it joined a fast-growing club of African nations that have gone to the market to borrow cash to pay off maturing debts in a bid to smooth out liabilities and ring-fence critical expenditure such as health.

"This year, the stakes are higher: the government must demonstrate improved budget discipline to bolster its case for a new IMF programme, while also managing public sentiment to avoid social unrest," Smit-Lengton said.

--Reuters--