NEWS HEADLINES 1. Kenyan Shillings vs Dollars Ksh 129 = 1 USD 2. Kenya receives 17 Mountain Bongos from Florida at JKIA headed for Meru 3. Former IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati will be laid to rest on March 8, Kitale 4. State House, Mombasa : President Ruto hosts Raila Odinga 5. Kenyans should prepare for increased taxes in the 2025/26 financial year as the govt reduces borrowing to fund a record-high Ksh4.2 trillion budget, up from the current Ksh3.9 trillion 6. The State Department for Higher Education and Research faces a major funding shortfall of Ksh122.1 billion for recurrent expenditure in the 2025/2026 financial year, with only Ksh142.3 billion allocated against a requirement of Ksh264.4 billion 7. Private hospitals will suspend SHA and MAKL services until the government clears pending payments of more than Ksh30.9 billion or provides payment guarantees 8. The government aims to raise Ksh9.2 billion for affordable housing in Athi River through a PPP model 9. President Ruto hints at Working with Raila Odinga ahead of the 2027 Polls 10. SADC and EAC appoint Former Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, Former Nigerian President Obasanjo & Former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam to Lead Eastern DR Congo Peace Talks (Merged Luanda-Nairobi Peace Initiative) 11. Nigeria’s ban on fuel trucks carrying up to 60,000 liters, criticized, analysts argue improving roads would be a more effective way to prevent tanker accidents and explosions 12. Mozambique's GDP fell 4.87 percent in the last quarter of 2024 amid election turmoil 13. The G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies meet in Cape Town, South Africa 14. South Africans may soon face a VAT increase, alongside a planned electricity tariff hike by the state-owned utility Eskom. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana postponed his budget speech last week after the cabinet rejected a proposed 2% VAT hike. A decision is expected on March 12. 15. Chelsea and Somerville, two sanctuary cities in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, filed a federal lawsuit on Monday challenging the Trump Administration’s attempts to coerce them into participating in mass deportation efforts 16. Infini, a stablecoin DeFi neobank, lost $49M when a former engineer retained admin control of a smart contract. The attacker exploited these admin rights to drain funds from Infini’s USDC vault 17. Arab Financial Services (AFS) agrees POS stablecoin payments partnership in the UAE 18. What happened in crypto last week? Bitcoin hit $99,000, now trades at $95,000 Ethereum hit $2,800, now trades at $2,600 Bybit suffered the biggest hack in crypto with $1.4 billion in losses Lazarus Group launches ‘QinShihuang’ memecoin to launder $26M more from the Bybit stash First-ever spot XRP ETF approved in Brazil FTX has started refunding creditors paying out $800 million from a $1.2 billion round Metaplanet bought 68 BTC raising its holdings to 2,100 BTC worth $203M Michael Saylor’s Strategy raising $2B to purchase more BTC Ethereum exchange supply hits a record low Solana announces a yield-generating stablecoin Tether and Circle mint 1B USDT on Tron and 250M USDC on Solana, respectively