Fear grips villagers under seige from venomous snakes

By Moses Njagih

Isaiah Kivanga shudders as he recalls what he terms the scariest encounter he has ever had in his life.

He breathes hard as he narrates: "The snake was so close to my face I did not know what to do. I looked at its raised head, which was puffed up ready to strike, and knew I had to do something or it would bite me again. I moved fast to hit its head with my palm, and that is when it struck again like lightning, biting my small finger."

He killed the snake but since that confrontation three months ago, Kivanga has been lying on a hospital bed, one leg swollen and heavily bandaged from foot to knee.

Misery written all over his wrinkled face, Kivanga, a former Riakanau Ward Councillor in Gachoka Constituency, Mbeere District, says the small ward at privately owned Mwea Medical Centre in Ngurubani has been his home since the cobra bit him. Kivanga is one of about 50 people bitten by snakes this year in an interior location of Mbeere District known as Muminji, a rocky semi-arid area listed by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) as having one of the highest snake infestations in the country.

Mbiti Kanyoti who had his leg amputated. [PHOTOS:GEORGE MULALA/STANDARD]

No anti-venom

The mother thought she was lucky when Mbeere DC John Chelimo arrived in the area, though for a different mission and without any means of transport to take the girl to another hospital, offered his official vehicle that ferried her to Ishiara Sub-District Hospital. But the facility had no anti-venom.

"She died at around midday as we rushed her to Siakago," recounts the mother, fighting back tears.

The Mbeere Medical Officer of Health Stephen Kaniaru admits that the life-saving anti-venom drugs are not available in dispensaries and health centres for lack of qualified personnel to administer them.

Dr Kaniaru says the drug is available at Siakago and Ishiara District hospitals and at Embu Provincial General Hospital.

"The administration of the drug requires an officer who is qualified to handle such cases," he says.