NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Kenyan shilling held steady against the dollar on Thursday as investors traded cautiously ahead of the government's budget speech due to be presented to parliament later in the day. At 0802 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 85.10/30 per dollar, barely changed from Wednesday's close of 85.20/30. "We're just waiting to see how the budget will be like," said Duncan Kinuthia, head of trading at Commercial Bank of Africa. "If they could put some tax on unnecessary imports, we could see some gains on the shilling." The shilling has been fairly steady this year, helped by a tight monetary stance adopted by the central bank late last year when it hit a series of record lows. Kenya and three other member states of the East African Community trade bloc are due to present their national budgets on Thursday. East Africa's biggest economy plans to raise its public spending for the 2012/13 (July-June) fiscal year to 1.46 trillion shillings from 1.16 trillion shillings previously. "Market activity has slowed down as most players await to see what the budget will offer Kenyans and how the same will impact the shilling," said Bank of Africa in a daily note to its clients.

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