Money in Kenya: M-Pesa, cards and cash for visitors

Kenya is further into mobile money than almost anywhere. M-Pesa is not a convenience here, it is the default — used for taxis, groceries, rent, market stalls and the man selling roasted maize by the road. Visitors who arrive with only a card find a surprising number of doors politely closed.

The currency

The Kenyan shilling, written KSh or KES. Notes come in 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1,000. The thousand-shilling note is awkward for small purchases, much like a fifty anywhere else — break it at a supermarket early and keep the smaller notes.

M-Pesa, and whether you need it

M-Pesa is money held against a phone number, sent by text. It is Safaricom’s, it is everywhere, and registering needs a Kenyan SIM and your passport — which is the main reason to buy that SIM in the arrivals hall rather than later.

For a two-night trip you can skip it. For anything longer it makes daily life markedly easier: paying for a taxi without hunting for change, settling a delivery, buying fruit from a stall that has never seen a card machine.

• Top up with cash at any M-Pesa agent — small shops with green signage, on more or less every street.
• Paybill and Till numbers are how businesses take payment. You will be told the number; you type it in.
• Send only to numbers you have been given directly. The same caution you would apply to a bank transfer applies here.

Cards

Visa and Mastercard work in supermarkets, malls, hotels, hospitals and established restaurants. American Express is patchier. Contactless is common in the places that take cards at all.

Tell your bank you are travelling. A card frozen for “unusual activity” on the first afternoon is a genuinely bad start, and sorting it out from a different time zone takes a morning.

Cash

ATMs are plentiful in Upper Hill, Kilimani and the malls. Draw from machines attached to bank branches during the day rather than isolated ones at night — ordinary big-city sense.

Carry a modest amount, not a wad. A few thousand shillings covers a day of taxis, coffee and fruit, and there is no reason to walk around with more — see our note on staying sensible.

Tipping and haggling

• Restaurants: ten per cent is generous and appreciated; many bills add a service charge already, so check.
• Taxis: not expected. Rounding up is normal.
• Markets: bargaining is expected and good-humoured. Shops and supermarkets are fixed price.

What this means for booking

It is worth knowing how anywhere you stay expects to be paid. We take payment in person on arrival — cash, M-Pesa, card or bank transfer, whichever suits — rather than online, which is why the rate carries no booking fee or commission. The reasoning is in how booking with us works.