Riot police, some on horseback, have been deployed in the capital Nairobi and have fired tear gas in an effort to disperse the demonstrators.

The parliament buildings have been cordoned off ahead of the vote by MPs on the controversial finance bill later today.

Many fear the tax cuts will worsen a cost-of-living crisis.

Protests are also taking place in the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and other cities.

More than 300 people were arrested earlier this week following similar demonstrations.

A little earlier, I spoke to our senior Africa correspondent, Anne Soy.

I'm just standing outside parliament where that debate has been going on, this controversial finance bill.

I can hear tear gas being lobbed in all directions.

The young people have come out in large numbers.

They have gone to different streets and the police are trying to keep them away from here.

This is the ultimate goal.

They want to come here and occupy parliament, but they're not being allowed to do that.

You can see the cordon here.

And they're saying that they want the bill that is being debated in parliament to be rejected in its entirety.

They disagree with many of the clauses there.

On Tuesday, the government announced concessions on a number of the controversial clauses, including 16 percent value-added tax on bread, motor vehicle levies and other taxes.

But they say that is not enough.

That's the message that they're trying to pass here.

They have been mobilizing and reaching out to their MPs, asking them to reject the finance bill.

So that debate is going on here.

They don't have a lot of time for that because they were hoping that they would pass this bill by next week, so that come July, they'll have a law in place to be able to spend, to carry out government spending.

So today, the protests are more widespread across the city and in different towns across the country, including the president's own hometown of Eldoret in western Kenya.

Yeah, and it's a good point that, isn't it?

Although we're looking at the demonstrations, we're just seeing water cannons being used actually against demonstrators.

But these are not just solely in Nairobi.

They are elsewhere.

That's right.

They're in different towns across the country.

Yesterday, they were in the coastal city of Mombasa.

And really, what is different about these protests is that it is young people in their 20s.

I have spoken to some teenagers who have come out, and they are so educated about tax issues, and they are debating this.

And they're saying, we don't want this.

We don't want this.

And they're saying that they have to be heard by government.

This is not led by politicians.

In fact, they have asked politicians to stay away and come to parliament to debate those issues and shoot it down before parliament.

And therefore, this is something new in the country.

They have been mobilising on social media, on TikTok and Twitter and other platforms.

And they're saying that they will not back down.

And that was our Africa correspondent, Anne Soy, talking to me in the last hour.

We will, of course, keep across the developing situation in Nairobi, Kenya.