Connecting Kenya’s Digital Services to M-PESA

Most Kenyans do not think about what happens behind the scenes when they pay for something online, settle a hospital bill or access a public service portal. The experience feels almost natural; you click, pay and move on. But behind that simplicity is a layer we never get to see, the work of developers and system integrators who connect these services to M-PESA through Daraja 3.0. One of those integrators is Robert Manyala, Director at Robisearch Limited, a Kenyan technology company that builds payment and automation systems for businesses and public institutions. Robisearch has been integrating with M-PESA for close to a decade, long enough to remember when the process required far more patience than it does today. “In the early days, integration was not straightforward,” Robert says with a laugh. “You needed certificates tied to specific browsers. Going live had many steps. If you made a small mistake, like entering the wrong URL, you had to stop and call someone to help you fix it.” At the time, Robisearch was already serving more than 100 clients who depended on it to get systems up and running. Every delay in the integration meant the business had to wait longer to start collecting payments. That experience, he says, has changed completely. “Today, the interface is smoother. We can manage things ourselves. If I make a mistake, I do not have to wait for support to correct it. What used to take days, sometimes even a week, now takes hours.” For developers, that difference directly affects how quickly they can deliver for clients and how fast those clients can begin operating. “Speed is profit. When integration takes too long, customers look for alternatives. When we can go live quickly, our customers start earning faster and so do we.” A big part of that shift has come from the self-service tools now available on Daraja 3.0. “As programmers, we do not work 9 to 5. Sometimes you get your best work done at midnight. With the self-service tools, I do not have to wait for someone else to be online. I can continue integrating whenever I want. That freedom changes how we work.” That freedom has also made it easier for Robisearch to expand beyond Kenya. The company now operates in Uganda and South Africa, with ambitions to grow further across the continent. “If the API works well for us in Kenya, and Safaricom has presence in other markets, we can move there much faster than someone starting from scratch. That’s a big opportunity for Kenyan tech companies.” Their work is not limited to private businesses. Robisearch recently launched a product called DG Visitor, a digital visitor management system designed for government buildings. Instead of signing into a physical book where personal details are visible to anyone, visitors register digitally, improving both efficiency and data privacy. “We are exploring how to integrate this further with Safaricom. It is about making public buildings more secure and records more reliable.” For Robert, Daraja is no longer just a way to connect payments. It is a platform that allows Robisearch to offer more solutions to clients. “Safaricom has given developers a buffet of APIs. Now it is up to us to build solutions. If there is an API that allows us to check certain records, automate compliance, or improve how businesses keep data, we can plug that into our systems and create more value.” Security, he notes, has also improved significantly over the years. “Today, people run multi-billion-shilling businesses from wherever they are because they trust that their money is safe. That confidence has grown over time.” Looking back, Robert sees the evolution of Daraja as closely tied to Robisearch’s own growth. As integration became easier, the company was able to serve more clients, faster, and expand its footprint. “Cheap is not always affordable, and expensive is not always costly. What matters is value. The improvements we have seen have real value for us and for the businesses we support.” His experience reflects something bigger happening in Kenya’s digital space. “We might think that developers are just building apps but in reality, they are building the invisible systems that power commerce, logistics, public services, healthcare platforms and enterprise operations. Most users will never hear the word “API”. They will simply experience faster services, smoother payments and more reliable systems.” For companies like Robisearch, that is the whole point. “The collaboration Safaricom has had with developers is what has helped the ecosystem grow. If that collaboration continues, we can build even bigger solutions together.” For Robert, Daraja 3.0 is less about new features and more about how quickly an idea can move from a developer’s laptop to a live service used by thousands of people. The APIs may be invisible but the impact they enable is not.