Johnstone Ole Turana

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Kenya’s shilling weakened for the third day against the dollar and headed for its weakest closing level on record as importers increased demand.

The currency of East Africa’s biggest economy depreciated as much as 0.9 percent to 103.45 per dollar and traded 0.8 percent lower at 103.35 by 11:51 a.m in Nairobi, the capital.

“The shilling has weakened on aggressive dollar demand from importers and with market sentiments and fundamentals against it, it’s likely to breach the 104 to the dollar levels in the coming days,” Duncan Kinuthia, a dealer at Nairobi-based Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd., said by phone today.

--Editors: Ana Monteiro, Peter Branton

To contact the reporter on this story: Johnstone Ole Turana in Nairobi at jturana@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net