Police in Nairobi fired tear gas at protesters Tuesday as Kenyan lawmakers were debating a finance bill that would impose across-the-board tax hikes.

A heavy police presence was established in Nairobi's business district to keep the demonstrators from marching on parliament.

Kenya has seen a growing online, youth-led movement in recent days against the bill, which the government says is necessary to continue to pay the interest on its high sovereign debt.

The protests have largely been peaceful, but domestic and international human rights groups say two people were killed during protests last week, while accusing police of illegally detaining demonstrators.

Lawmakers have scrapped some proposed tax hikes from the measure, including new taxes on bread, car ownership and financial transactions. The finance ministry says the changes to the proposed taxes will create a $1.5 billion budget shortfall.

Demonstrations against the finance bill were also staged Tuesday in the southeastern port city of Mombasa and the western city of Kisumu.

Some information for this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse.