Below is a table comparing the performance of the Kenya Shilling against the major international currencies as well as the currencies of our neighbouring countries in the last two trading days, Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th May 2012:
| Currency | US Dollars | Sterling Pounds | Euro | SA Rand | KES/USHS | KES/TSHS | KES/RWF | |
| Date | 23/05/2012 | 85.1625 | 134.1063 | 107.8571 | 10.1899 | 29.0739 | 18.6703 | 7.0749 |
| 24/05/2012 | 85.2558 | 133.6428 | 107.227 | 10.1567 | 29.2063 | 18.6381 | 7.0671 | |
As we can see the Kenya Shilling continued its weakening trend against the US Dollar and in yesterday’s trading it also weakened against the Uganda Shilling. It however strengthened against the Sterling Pound, the Euro, the South African Rand, the Tanzanian Shilling and the Rwanda Franc.
In today’s trading we hope that the Kenya Shilling will, at least, stabilise against the US Dollar as the week draws to a close. The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) may continue selling dollars to the market so as to increase the supply of the dollar and somewhat satisfy the investor demand for the dollar.
This weakening trend has been the case for the better part of the last 10 days and may be caused by the impact of global trade and politics on our economy as an importer. The squabbles surrounding the Euro has caused global investors to convert their Euro holdings into US Dollars, this has increased the demand for dollars the world over. This has had an impact on the performance of the Kenya Shilling.