The Kenyan Shilling is performing poorly following a sustained and consistent depreciation experienced over the past days.
According to Industry reports, the shilling against the dollar on Monday crossed the 150-unit mark. This has caused panic among traders within the East African community most of whom use Kenya as their access to global markets and products.
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) indicative rate published Monday morning showed the dollar’s buy price at Sh149.84 and a selling rate of Sh150.04 units, hence an average of 149.94.
The spot or average trading rate had climbed to Sh150.03 later on Monday afternoon.
Kenya’s currency has suffered depreciation by 17.7 percent against the dollar since the year begun, which is more than double the 8.3 percent it shed against the unit in the whole of 2022.
According to records, banking halls of 12 commercial lenders—including all nine tier one banks— showed that they were selling the dollar at between Sh154.95 and Sh157, and buying at a range of Sh141 and Sh149.95.
Banks have been selling dollars above the Sh150 level from late August.
Treasury Cabinet secretary Njuguna Ndung’u, when appearing before the National Assembly on September 27, said that the shilling’s recent slide was not a free fall, but rather a “process of adjustment” from what he termed as historical policy mistakes in the management of the shilling.
Prof Ndung’u said Kenya had largely held its currency constant in the previous five to seven years even as the country’s price structure changed, leaving it misaligned with the real economy.
