The market has been facing a liquidity squeeze with the central bank's tightening measures, helping the shilling recover most of this year's losses and pushing up the interbank average lending rate to 29.3 percent from 27.6 percent.

At 0715 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 83.65/85, unchanged from Friday's close. Markets were closed on Monday for Boxing Day.

"Trading is tight and in a narrow range. We are not seeing much activity since most companies are still closed for the holiday season," Robert Gatobu, a trader at Bank of Africa said.