At 23 years, Eston Kimani has made a name for himself in Murang’a as a ‘talented snake captor’.
Kimani has on numerous occasions been relied upon by villagers to save them from deadly serpents.
On Thursday evening, he successfully caught a five-metre long python in Karaha Village, Gaturi ward.
The python was spotted by Judy Wanjiku at her home eyeing her poultry. Wanjiku alerted her son Harrison Njogu who mobilized his friends to try and capture it.
But it was Kimani who saved the day after catching the snake and handing it over to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).
This was not the first snake that he has caught. He is known for his prowess in tracking and hunting them down.
Wanjiku told People Daily that she has lost two of her chicken under mysterious circumstances.
On the day she spotted the python, her chicken were restless which is when she realized they were escaping their predator.
“I was at my kiosk when I heard a commotion that suggested that my chicken were restless and after I checked I saw the python chasing the hens and was about to feast on one of them. I raised an alarm and pelted it with stones forcing it to run into a nearby bush,” she explained.
The snake was also a danger to her children who say it once chased then after spotting it in a nearby thicket.
Kimani works as a bodaboda rider but is always on call to help villagers being troubled by snakes.
He has caught five snakes so far, an art he learnt from wildlife documentaries on snake handling.
“I have watched a lot of wildlife movies and learnt how snakes are handled. This is what I put into practice,” he remarked.
In all the instances that he has caught snakes, he has never been bitten.
Murang’a’s hot and rocky nature is a breeding ground for different types of snakes among them pythons that prey on livestock.
