daraja-v3

Formerly mpesa-python — renamed to daraja-v3 on PyPI (the original name was taken).

Production Python SDK for Safaricom M-Pesa Daraja v3.

Zero external dependencies. Type-annotated. Stripe-quality error handling.

from mpesa import MpesaClient

client = MpesaClient(
    consumer_key="your_key",
    consumer_secret="your_secret",
    shortcode="174379",
    passkey="your_lnm_passkey",
    sandbox=True,           # flip to False when you go live
)

# Prompt customer phone to enter PIN
result = client.stk_push(
    phone="0712345678",     # any Kenyan format — normalised automatically
    amount=500,
    reference="Order-001",
    callback_url="https://yourapp.com/mpesa/callback",
)
print(result.checkout_request_id)

Why this exists

Every Kenya fintech project needs M-Pesa. Most of them roll their own wrapper — usually a 200-line mpesa_utils.py with no tests, swallowed exceptions, and phone number bugs. This is the library those teams should be importing instead.

Design goals (borrowed from Stripe's Python SDK):

• Fail before the network call when possible — ValidationError catches bad inputs locally
• Typed results — no response["Body"]["stkCallback"]["CallbackMetadata"]["Item"][0]["Value"]
• Token caching — never burn a request on an expired token
• Composable exceptions — catch MpesaError broadly or specific subclasses narrowly
• Zero dependencies — drop into any environment without conflicts

Installation

pip install daraja-v3

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/gabrielmahia/mpesa-python
cd mpesa-python
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Supported APIs

Roadmap: Reversal, Transaction Status, QR Code, Ratiba (recurring payments)

Usage guide

STK Push + webhook

# 1. Initiate push
result = client.stk_push(
    phone="0712345678",
    amount=1500,
    reference="Invoice-2024-042",
    description="Subscription",
    callback_url="https://yourapp.com/mpesa/stk/callback",
)

# 2. Store result.checkout_request_id against your order

# 3. In your webhook handler:
from mpesa import MpesaClient

def handle_stk_callback(request_body: dict):
    payment = MpesaClient.parse_stk_callback(request_body)
    if payment["paid"]:
        receipt = payment["mpesa_receipt"]   # e.g. "NLJ7RT61SV"
        amount  = payment["amount"]          # e.g. 1500
        phone   = payment["phone"]           # e.g. "254712345678"
        # update your order, send confirmation email, etc.

B2C disbursement

result = client.b2c(
    phone="0712345678",
    amount=5000,
    remarks="Monthly stipend",
    initiator_name="testapi",             # from your Daraja portal
    security_credential="encrypted_cred",
    callback_url="https://yourapp.com/mpesa/b2c/result",
    queue_timeout_url="https://yourapp.com/mpesa/b2c/timeout",
)
print(result.conversation_id)  # use to reconcile

Error handling

from mpesa import MpesaClient
from mpesa.exceptions import ValidationError, AuthenticationError, TransactionError, MpesaError

try:
    result = client.stk_push(phone="bad-phone", amount=100, reference="ref")
except ValidationError as e:
    # Bad input — no network call was made
    print(f"Fix your input: {e.message} (code: {e.code})")
except AuthenticationError as e:
    # Check your CONSUMER_KEY and CONSUMER_SECRET
    print(f"Auth failed: {e.message}")
except TransactionError as e:
    # M-Pesa returned a non-zero result (user cancelled, insufficient funds, etc.)
    print(f"Transaction failed: {e.message} (M-Pesa code: {e.code})")
    print(f"Raw response: {e.raw}")
except MpesaError as e:
    # Catch-all for any other SDK error
    print(f"Error: {e.message}")

Phone number normalisation

The SDK accepts any Kenyan phone format and normalises to 2547XXXXXXXX:

from mpesa.validators import phone

phone("0712345678")      # → "254712345678"
phone("+254712345678")   # → "254712345678"
phone("254712345678")    # → "254712345678"
phone("712345678")       # → "254712345678"
phone("bad-number")      # → raises ValidationError

Development

# Clone and install dev dependencies
git clone https://github.com/gabrielmahia/mpesa-python
cd mpesa-python
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

# Lint
ruff check .

# Type check
mypy mpesa/

Running integration tests

Integration tests require Daraja sandbox credentials. Set environment variables:

export MPESA_CONSUMER_KEY="your_sandbox_key"
export MPESA_CONSUMER_SECRET="your_sandbox_secret"
export MPESA_SHORTCODE="174379"
export MPESA_PASSKEY="your_sandbox_passkey"
export MPESA_CALLBACK_URL="https://your-ngrok-tunnel.ngrok.io/mpesa/callback"

pytest tests/integration/ -v

Get sandbox credentials free at developer.safaricom.co.ke.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

This SDK follows the project conventions in nairobi-stack — the engineering guide for building products in East Africa.

License

MIT — use freely in commercial and open source projects. Attribution appreciated.

Built by a Kenyan engineer who has written this wrapper from scratch one too many times.

Sandbox setup and testing

• New to Daraja, or cloned this on a new machine? docs/SANDBOX_SETUP.md creates a free sandbox app and runs a verified OAuth / STK Push / status check in a few minutes. Keys cannot be shared, so each developer makes their own.
• No account? MpesaClient(..., base_url="http://localhost:PORT") talks to daraja-mock; the test suite does exactly that.
• Is the sandbox still behaving? scripts/sandbox_canary.py checks it and a weekly workflow runs it when you add DARAJA_CONSUMER_KEY and DARAJA_CONSUMER_SECRET secrets.