diff --git a/pytools/obmcutil b/pytools/obmcutil
index 1b850fc..2661da0 100644
--- a/pytools/obmcutil
+++ b/pytools/obmcutil
@@ -121,9 +121,9 @@
     dbus_obj = dbus_bus.get_object(bus, obj)
     result = None
 
-    if descriptor.has_key('property'):
+    if 'property' in descriptor:
         dbus_iface = dbus.Interface(dbus_obj, "org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties")
-        if descriptor.has_key('value'):
+        if 'value' in descriptor:
             result = run_set_property(dbus_bus, dbus_iface, descriptor, args)
         else:
             prop = descriptor['property']