NAIROBI, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Kenya's shilling was flat

on Monday but seen weaker towards the end of the month amid

signs a liquidity crunch is easing and on anticipated dollar

demand from corporate clients ahead of March's presidential

election, traders said.

Importers have been stockpiling shillings since the

beginning of the year ahead of next month's tight presidential

race in East Africa's biggest economy.

It is the first presidential vote since 2007, when President

Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election sparked weeks of nationwide

violence that left more than 1,000 dead.

'Looks like there is interest on the demand side building up

towards end-month, so we might see it weaken slightly,' said

Jeremiah Kendagor, head of trading at Kenya Commercial Bank.

At 0800 GMT, commercial banks posted the shilling at

87.40/55 per dollar, barely changed from Friday's 87.40/50.

So far this year the shilling is down 1.4 percent against

the dollar, with a sharper decline only prevented by the central

bank intervening steadily to drain shillings from the money

market. This has tightened liquidity and driven up the interbank

lending rate steadily since mid-January.

The bank stepped in on Monday to mop up 15 billion

shillings.

However, the interbank rate came off slightly on Friday,

dipping to 9.85 percent from 9.91 percent a day earlier on

improved liquidity as banks hold on to their shillings, Kendagor

said.

'Banks have been cautious in tying their liquidity. No one

wants to be caught short on shillings,' said Kendagor.

Bank of Africa said forecast corporate demand would spike in

the run-up to the March 4 ballot as companies play it safe and

lock in dollars. The post-election violence in 2007/8 sent the

shilling into a nose-dive.

'We expect the shilling to trade within a range of 87.30 -

87.80 during the week,' Bank of Africa said in a market

briefing.

...........................Shilling spot rates

.....................Shilling forward rates

.......................Cross rates

..................................Local contributors

.......................Central Bank of Kenya Index

.....................Kenyan Bonds contributor pages

...............Treasury bill yields

..................Central bank open market operations

.........................Horizontal repo transactions

,................Daily interbank lending rate

.............................Kenya Bond pricing

..................Real time Africa economic data

...........................African economic news

.................................NSE-20 Share Index

.................................NSE All Share Index

...........................FT NSE Kenya 15 Index

.......................... FT NSE Kenya 25 Index

SPEED GUIDES:

(Reporting by Beatrice Gachenge; Editing by Richard Lough)

Keywords: KENYA MARKETS/

(beatrice.gachenge@thomsonreuters.com)(Tel: +254202224717)(Reuters Messaging: beatrice.gachenge.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. All rights reserved.

The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.