13 Oct 2026 4 min read English

Money in Kenya: US dollars, M-Pesa, cards and tipping on a safari

An M-Pesa and Equity Bank agent in Nairobi. Photo: Fiona Graham via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

These are just some points off the top of my head, which I know from living in Kenya and helping guests and friends do trips in Kenya.

US dollars are handy, but some park gates won't take cash

US dollars are quite handy over here. You'll notice that many of the hotels and the park entrance fees and everything are quoted in US dollars for foreigners. In the Maasai Mara, cash is accepted as well, but many places like the KWS parks, the other parks, only take online payments, so a credit card works.

The KWS parks are the ones the Kenya Wildlife Service runs (Nairobi National Park, Amboseli, Tsavo, Lake Nakuru, Hell's Gate and the rest). They haven't taken cash since 2017, and today you pay through KWSPay with M-Pesa or a card.

At Sekenani, the main Mara gate, you can pay the park fee in dollars, shillings, card or M-Pesa, and the other county gates like Talek and Oloolaimutia probably work the same way, since they all use the same county ticketing. The Mara Triangle, across the river, doesn't take cash.

One tip about the Mara entry fee. There is an issue of sometimes some guests not getting official receipts for the park entry fee. I recommend making sure you get the official receipt, so that the money goes to the right org, and often you get asked for it when heading back by road at a checkpoint as well. Rangers inside the reserve can ask to see it too.

Chart of what each place in Kenya accepts: Sekenani Gate in the Maasai Mara takes US dollars, shillings, card and M-Pesa; the Mara Triangle and KWS national parks take card or M-Pesa only; hotels and lodges take dollars and shillings and mostly card and M-Pesa; markets and stalls take shillings and M-Pesa, sometimes dollars, not cards; tips can be dollars, shillings or M-Pesa — Who takes what, October 2026. Card means Visa or Mastercard.

At the airport, get a Safaricom SIM with M-Pesa on it

The best thing I'd recommend is, when you land at the airport there will be a Safaricom kiosk at the airport itself. Get a SIM card with working data and ask them to activate your M-Pesa as well, and top up or add some M-Pesa balance into it, whether that's $100, $200 or $300, which you can use anywhere. That could be for tips, that could be for buying some souvenirs along the way, some food along the way, anything you'd like to purchase. M-Pesa works in the entire country. Even small amounts like 50 shillings for parking, or larger amounts, M-Pesa works for everything. So I do recommend it, it's one of the most convenient things you can do as a tourist.

M-Pesa is Safaricom's mobile money, a wallet on your Kenyan SIM. A few things to know:

The SIM is registered against your original passport (Kenyan law), and M-Pesa goes on the same registration.
Your phone has to be unlocked. A travel eSIM from an app gives you data but no Kenyan number, so it can't run M-Pesa.
M-Pesa only holds shillings, so you need some first. There's an ATM at the airport, or you can head to a currency exchange in the city as well, which would have a better conversion price. At about 129 shillings to the dollar (mid-2026), $100 to $300 is roughly KES 13,000 to 39,000. You load it at the Safaricom counter, or later at any M-Pesa agent, the small green-painted shops you'll see in every town.
No Kenyan SIM? TouristTap, launched in April 2026, lets you pay M-Pesa till and paybill numbers from a Visa or Mastercard on a phone with contactless. And if you run low, Wise and WorldRemit can send money from home into an M-Pesa number.

At a shop you'll see a till number ("Buy Goods") or a paybill number with an account number, and for a person, say a driver or a guide, you just send to their phone number. Before you put in your PIN it shows the name of who you're paying, so check it. Whatever is left at the end of the trip, you can withdraw as cash at an agent before you fly out.

An M-Pesa Buy Goods till number sign standing on a shop counter in Kenya — A Buy Goods till number on a counter. Photo: Raidarmax via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Visa and Mastercard for the bigger payments

Apart from that, for the much larger payments, usually credit cards, Visa and Mastercard are accepted at most places, including park entrances and hotels, lodges and stuff. Just be aware that American Express does not work in most places. So be aware of that, Discover and Amex both don't work.

Us at Mara Hilltop, we accept everything, cash and credit cards (Visa and Mastercard) or M-Pesa. So anything is fine.

How much to tip

It's not a very big tipping culture here. Unlike the US, you don't have to pay 20% or something of a bill, you can just give whatever you prefer. When you're done with your safari, say a two-day safari, at the end of it some people like to tip $20, some people like to tip $40, $60. It's all up to you and how happy you are, and there's no sort of wrong answer here.

Dollars or shillings are both fine for a tip, and so is M-Pesa straight to the guide's phone after the last drive.

For restaurants, what I tip in Nairobi depends on the bill. 10 to 15% is a good tip here.

A short checklist

Before you fly:

A Visa or Mastercard as your main card.
Some US dollars in cash, handy for hotels, tips and the Mara gate.
An unlocked phone.

At the airport:

Safaricom SIM with data and M-Pesa, registered with your passport.
Shillings from the airport ATM, or a currency exchange in the city for a better rate, then load $100 to $300 onto M-Pesa.

On the trip: