NAIROBI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The Kenyan shilling edged up on Thursday, helped by the central bank's tightening of liquidity the previous day, but traders said importer demand for dollars would weigh on the shilling. At 0745 GMT, commercial banks posted the shilling at 85.55/75 per dollar, slightly stronger than Wednesday's close of 85.70/80. "When they (central bank) take out excess shillings, it reduces the pressure on the currency," said Duncan Kinuthia, head of trading at Commercial Bank of Africa. But without that support, the currency is expected to depreciate as the central bank lowers interest rates. "So we are seeing it (shilling) is depreciating gradually as opposed to the erratic moves we saw last year." w/out This year, the central bank has regularly mopped up excess shillings from the market via repurchase agreements to stabilise the currency, which is down 0.5 percent year-to-date. On Wednesday, the central bank absorbed 17.65 billion shillings for the 15 billion it intended to mop up via repurchase agreements. It received bids worth 24.55 billion shillings. The central bank was criticised for easing monetary policy in early 2011, which led to the shilling hitting all-time low of 107 to the dollar in October. It then embarked on aggressive tightening in the second half of last year, and more recently has been slashing rates to support the economy as inflation falls. Chris Muiga, a senior trader at Kenya Commercial Bank, said the shilling was expected to weaken due to dollar demand from importers during the session and in coming days. "The main drivers are energy guys and there is a bit of telecom (dollar) demand," Muiga said, adding that would put pressure on the shilling.

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