Rongai residents and the python

Thursday, the 22^nd of March 2012 - A python was yesterday rescued by KWS rangers from death at the hands of angry residents in Ongata Rongai. The snake had been discovered near a river by a resident who had gone to answer a call of nature; it had a lump in its long body (reportedly from swallowing a dog) and therefore could not move.


The resident who discovered it raised the alarm and he was soon surrounded by neighbours who upon realising the threat from the snake, set upon the reptile with all sorts of weapons. Lucky for the snake, KWS rangers were in the vicinity and they rescued the snake from imminent death. Ranger John Plimo explained that the KWS officers had a duty to protect the snake

 “We have been guarding the python to prevent angry inhabitants from killing it.”

The KWS rangers’ efforts to whisk the captured reptile away were complicated by the fact that a resident stole a special bag that the rangers were intending to use to carry the snake away. In the end, the officers had to borrow a sack from one of the residents

There is love lost between snakes and residents of the area who blame the reptiles for making away with their livestock and also for being a danger to their own lives. Jackson Salaa, who lives in the area and was himself armed with an arrow explained the resident’s anger;

“They have now eaten two dogs and six goats. I only need a few minutes, and I will cut its head. This thing is so harmful to our animals and useless to our lives,” he said.

Stanley Wekesa, a pupil at El-Shaddai Primary School told his own story of a luck escape after an encounter with a snake;

“I was playing by the river when the snake attacked me, biting my forehead before I escaped to safety.”

Although not poisonous, pythons have been known to attack humans even though they may appear to be lazy creatures. KWS ranger John Plimo himself admitted that fact;

“They also eat human beings,” Mr Plimo explained.

It is a fact that is hard to verify but Kenya is reported to have 126 species of snakes.

The Kenyan DAILY POST