Daraja API — Kenya glossary (2026)

Full definition

Daraja (Swahili for bridge) is Safaricom's official M-PESA developer platform, hosted at developer.safaricom.co.ke. Before Daraja, M-PESA integrations were bilateral partnerships with Safaricom; since 2017 any developer can self-serve, register an app in the sandbox, test against a sandbox short code, get an OAuth client, and then move to production once Safaricom approves the merchant KYC and short code.

The core endpoints are: STK Push (M-PESA Express) for customer-initiated pay, C2B for register-URL and validation-confirmation on paybill and till payins, B2C for business-initiated payouts to customer phones (used by insurers, betting operators, employers, and salary disbursements), B2B for business-to-business payouts, transaction status query, reversal, and account balance.

Daraja is the single most important layer for anyone building on M-PESA. Any e-commerce checkout, any subscription biller, any embedded finance product in Kenya that touches M-PESA is talking to Daraja. Rate limits, authentication (OAuth with a Consumer Key and Consumer Secret), and callback URL configuration are all documented on the Daraja portal.

Worked example

A merchant builds a Node.js app that: (1) calls the Daraja OAuth endpoint for an access token, (2) posts an STK Push request with the customer's MSISDN and the amount, (3) listens on a callback URL for the STK result, (4) writes the receipt into their order database.

Related terms

STK Push

STK Push (also called M-PESA Express or Lipa na M-PESA Online) is the Safaricom Daraja API that lets a merchant push a payment prompt to a customer's phone. The customer sees a native M-PESA dialog with the merchant name and amount pre-filled, and confirms with their PIN.

C2B

C2B (Customer to Business) is the Daraja API family for accepting money from customers to a merchant paybill or till. It includes the Register URL endpoint (to give Safaricom the merchant callback), the Validation URL (optional real-time accept/reject), and the Confirmation URL (final receipt delivery).

B2C

B2C (Business to Customer) is the Daraja API for pushing money from a merchant paybill out to a customer's M-PESA. Insurers use it for claim payouts, betting operators for withdrawals, employers for salary disbursements, and platforms for refunds. Payouts land in the customer's M-PESA within seconds.

Paybill

A paybill is a Safaricom shortcode (5 to 7 digits) that a business or institution uses to collect payments where each customer has their own account reference. The customer selects Lipa na M-PESA, Pay Bill, enters the paybill, an account number and the amount.

Till Number

A till number is a 5 to 7 digit Safaricom merchant code used for Buy Goods and Services payments. The customer picks Lipa na M-PESA, chooses Buy Goods, enters the till number and the amount, and the merchant is credited without needing a per-customer account reference.

Full definition

Worked example

Related terms

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