Subscription for Treasury bills drops in last three weeks

Henry Rotich, Cabinet Secretary Treasury

The political impasse in Kenya has hit uptake of Treasury bills, with investors remaining cautious ahead of the October 26 repeat elections.

Subscription has been on the decline for the last three weeks but dropped to the lowest last week as the contested polls, which the opposition has boycotted, approach.

Last week, overall Treasury bills subscription for the 91-, 182- and 364-day bills declined to a record 43 percent, down from 63 percent recorded in the previous week, Central Bank of Kenya data shows Monday.

The worst affected of the three bills was the 364-day security, whose uptake stood at 34 percent, down from 81 percent in the previous week.

Yields on the 91-, 182- and 364-day papers remained unchanged from the previous week at 8.1 percent, 10.3 percent and 11 percent respectively.

During the week, the Central Bank's overall acceptance rate stood at 96 percent, compared to 87 percent in the previous week, with the government accepting a total of 95 million U.S. dollars of the 100 million dollars' worth of bids received, against the 240 million on offer in the auction.

Analysts attributed the low subscription rates to a relatively tight liquidity in the money market and the political crisis.

"Liquidity in the money market remained relatively tight during the week, with a net injection of 2.9 million dollars," said Cytonn, a Nairobi-based investment firm, adding that the political crisis has affected government fund disbursement.