NEW VISION (Kampala, Uganda) 11 August 05 He Makes Friends With Snakes (Chris Kiwawulo)
Kampala: Mention the word snake and people will scamper for safety. Others rush for sticks to crush the head of the serpent.
Besides the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), a few people get offended when a snake is killed. Yasin Kazibwe, 21, is one of them. For him, killing a snake is like killing his relative.
Kazibwe, a resident of Kitende in Kajjansi, Wakiso district, has over the years, acquired techniques of catching snakes. He holds two sticks, one with a hook fastened onto it and the other is covered with white plastic (protector) on both ends.
Kazibwe surely fixes his eyes on the head of the snake. Like a cunning thief, he slides the hook into the snake's mouth. Faster, he grabs its tail and gets hold of the giant reptile, a huge puff adder. He clutches it by its neck and tail as it wriggles.
"I use my hands, legs and brain to catch snakes. I feel good living with these reptiles. They are my friends," he says with a triumphant smile.
Kazibwe lives with the snakes in the same room.
He says he has tamed 30 species of snakes and has about 230 snakes that he keeps in cages at Kajjansi, in Mityana, and Mubende district.
Kazibwe is trying to get a licence from UWA to allow him keep the snakes.
However, an UWA official said it is illegal to domesticate wild creatures before acquiring the licence.
"Although I have not yet got a licence, I do not mind being imprisoned for living with snakes. I just like them and that is why I stay with them. By the way, they also recognise me as their master," Kazibwe says. He boasts of having seven years' experience in taming snakes.
Kazibwe says Floyd Nsimenta of Kajjansi was his first trainer, but they fell out when Nsimenta refused to stop selling the snakes.
"I disagree with any one who sells snakes," he says.
After calling it quits with Nsimenta, Kazibwe went to Tanzania for further training in handling snakes.
He met Jackson Erikson, a South African game warden, who picked interest in him and flew with him to Zimbabwe for training.
"On the last day of my training, I shared a tent with four snakes. I walked out of it secure," Kazibwe says.
"Any one can tame a snake, provided they are trained. A snake is harmless unless attacked. In many cases, snakes bite people in self-defence but when it sees you first, it takes off," he says.
Robert Kateregga, a resident of Maganjo in Wakiso, says when he sees a snake in his house, he cannot sleep until he it is killed.
Many people like Kategeregga think Kazibwe uses 'juju' (witchcraft) to tame the snakes, but he refutes the allegations.
Kazibwe has tamed snakes such as cobras, green snakes and pythons among others for over five years.
He says his oldest reptile, a puff adder, is about 12 years. According to Kazibwe, Africa has about 130 snake species, of which only 14 are poisonous. He has not been bitten by a snake.
Kazibwe proposed a project called The Uganda Reptile Village where he plans to keep the snakes for tourists.
"I want to start a project to preserve these reptiles, especially the snakes that I love living with, but I do not have enough funds. I need a sponsor," he says.
The ambitious Kazibwe was born to Beatrice and Sulaiman Ssenyonga of Kajjansi. He says the commonest food given to snakes is fresh fish, rats, beef and goats meat.
Kazibwe gets financial assistance from Musa Lubega, Nelson Galira and Richard Kwezi, his consultant. Lubega and Galira are tour guides with Classic Safari and World Frontiers.
Kazibwe says he has trained five youths in snake-catching. He, however, warns the public against tampering with snakes without the necessary skills.
He cautions people with diseases such as cancer to keep away from snakes. Kazibwe says, "doctors advised Erikson, who is suffering from cancer, to stop catching the snakes because chances of survival are minimal if he got bitten by a snake," Kazibwe says.
Kazibwe is now studying snakes' behaviour. He has discovered that of all the 30 species he has, only the puff adder produces live young ones, the rest lay eggs.
The 21-year-old friend of the most feared reptile has the last word: "Even if I die one day, I will be remembered as the man whom the snakes loved.
He Makes Friends With Snakes