Nairobi, April 3 -- A former senior economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) now says Kenyans are choking on taxes over unrealistic revenue targets the institution is attaching to its loans to the country.

Peter Doyle, who quit IMF in 2012 after two decades and now serves as an independent research economist with focus on international macroeconomics, said in a recent forum on Africa's debt crisis that while Kenya has "tried very hard" not to default on debts, citizens are paying a steep price through a series of new taxes.

"Kenya has tried very hard to avoid default. But in doing so, the IMF has steadily increased the medium-term primary balance target that Kenya has to hit, which explains why every Kenyan tax is going up and...