The bank offered 2 billion shillings ($21.45mn) of debt, received demand for 1.35 billion shillings and accepted bids worth 1.31 billion shillings.

Overnight rates have shot up this week after the central bank moved to penalise banks borrowing through its overnight window to contain a steep drop in the shilling currency against the dollar.

Daily moves have raised the discount rate to 17.89 percent on Thursday from 6.25 percent last Friday and the interbank overnight rate to 14.89 percent on Thursday from 8.34 percent.

Next week, the central bank will offer three- and six-month Treasury bills totalling 5 billion shillings, it said in a statement.

Copyright Reuters, 2011