Cushion the shilling from free fall

Kenya: During the 2013 General Election, the Jubilee coalition promised Kenyan voters that in the first two years it would purse exchange rate stability and monetary policy that will lower interest rates.

However, the current depreciation of the shilling against the dollar and other major international currencies, in the last eight months, has shown the promise was a pipe dream.

Importers are bearing the brunt of weakening of the shilling against the dollar. Worse, Kenyan consumers are experiencing difficult life due to strained disposable income and increased and unbearable cost of living.

While I commend Central Bank of Kenya’s intervention by putting more dollars in the market and forming Monetary Policy Committee in the recent past, there is urgent need to put mechanisms in place to cushion the shilling from plummeting further.