Unwelcome guests: Climate change drives deadly snakes into homes
Issa Kofa sitting next to his daughter Swabrina Kofa at Hola Referral Hospital in Tana River County, where she was admitted after a snake attack that left her without vision.
What you need to know:
- Snakes are cold-blooded creatures that need external heat sources to regulate their body temperature.
- As climate change brings erratic weather patterns to Tana River County – including unusually heavy rains and flooding – their habitats are being disrupted.
It's a fear many of us recognise from childhood – that moment when you're tucked in bed and wonder if something might be lurking underneath. For families in Tana River County, this fear has become a terrifying reality.
As the climate shifts and seasons become more unpredictable, venomous snakes are being driven from their natural habitats directly into people's homes. What's causing this dangerous migration? The answer is as clear as it is concerning – climate change.
"The climate is shifting, and the snakes are moving with it," explains Bakari George, senior game warden for Tana River County. "As temperatures drop and their habitats flood, they seek warmth and food. Unfortunately, human homes provide both."
It spat in her eyes
For 13-year-old Swabrina Kofa, an ordinary night's sleep turned into a life-altering nightmare. While resting in her remote village in Garsen, a silent visitor slithered into her home. The spitting cobra didn't announce its presence with a rattle or hiss. It attacked.
"It spat in her eyes, she screamed, and before we knew it, the snake had sunk its fangs into her thigh," her father Issa Kofa said, his voice breaking as he recounted the night. "In the darkness, we struggled to kill it, but our greater struggle had just begun – saving my daughter's life."
What followed was a desperate race against time and venom. The family discovered that the nearest dispensary couldn't help. At a private clinic, they received only painkillers and sympathy. The life-saving anti-venom was over 100 kilometres away at Hola Referral Hospital.
With no transport available in the middle of the night, they had to wait until dawn – precious hours during which the venom spread. By the time Swabrina reached the hospital, she had lost sight in one eye, and doctors were fighting to save the other.
Swabrina's story isn't an isolated incident. Throughout Tana River, these dangerous encounters are becoming disturbingly common. The recent short rains have accelerated the problem, driving snakes from flooded habitats into human dwellings.
Isaac Bocha, 46, from Bandi Village, discovered a snake that had made itself comfortable in his bedding.
"I turned in my bed, and before I knew it, the snake struck," he told Climate Action, rolling up his trouser to show the scars where venom once coursed through his veins. "It had made its home within my bedding, and when I moved, it saw me as an enemy."
With no anti-venom available locally, Mr Bocha's family made a risky decision. Rather than heading to the closest facility at Garsen – which they knew wouldn't have the medicine – they crossed county lines into Kilifi, racing by motorbike to a hospital in Magarini.
"We couldn't trust Garsen. It was better to gamble with distance than arrive and find there was nothing," he explained. That midnight ride across county borders quite literally saved his life.
Even journalists aren't immune
“I should know. I had my own terrifying close call with a black mamba right in my home. It was 3am, typically a quiet hour, when unusual rustling sent a chill through my house. In the dim light, I could make out movement along the floor – a black mamba had turned my home into its hunting ground. It had been there, in silence, preying on crickets that had invaded my home. It found a warm corner under my cupboard, where it lay in wait, emerging in the stillness of night.
Despite several attempts to kill it, the snake proved incredibly fast and elusive. Eventually, I resorted to flooding its hiding place with boiling water, forcing it out and leading to its demise. But the incident left me shaken – and much more sympathetic to what my neighbours were experiencing,” narrates this writer.
Why snakes are moving in
The science behind these invasions is straightforward. Snakes are cold-blooded creatures that need external heat sources to regulate their body temperature. As climate change brings erratic weather patterns to Tana River County – including unusually heavy rains and flooding – their habitats are being disrupted.
"Species like brown house snakes, spitting cobras and other dangerous snakes are now more visible due to these erratic weather patterns," Bakari explains. "They're just trying to survive, and adaptation means encroaching on human spaces."
Climate data supports this explanation. According to the Kenya Meteorological Department, Tana River County has experienced increasingly irregular rainfall patterns over the past decade, with more intense but shorter rainy seasons and longer dry spells – precisely the conditions that force wildlife to seek new habitats.
An unprepared healthcare system
As frightening as these snake encounters are, what's equally concerning is the region's lack of medical preparedness. The county's health system is woefully unprepared for the increasing number of snakebite cases.
"We are dying not because we are bitten, but because we lack medicine," Bocha says. "If a bite happens at night, you have to wait for morning. By then, you are either paralysed or dead."
Tana River Health Director Oscar Endekwa acknowledges the problem. He notes that anti-venom is available in only three hospitals across the entire county: Hola Referral, Ngao Hospital, and Bura Hospital. Crucially, Garsen Hospital – the closest facility for many victims – cannot treat snakebites because it lacks a medical officer.
"You need a doctor to prescribe anti-venom because if done wrongly, the patient may end up having an anaphylactic reaction, which is life-threatening," Mr Endekwa explains. "So far, we only have doctors in the three centers with that capacity."
He adds a specific warning about the Red Spitting Cobra, which he says is particularly active this season and responsible for most of the reported cases in affected areas.
This isn't just a Tana River problem.
Across Kenya, approximately 20,000 snakebite cases are recorded annually, resulting in over 4,000 deaths and thousands more suffering from long-term disabilities, according to the Kenya Snakebite Research and Intervention Centre.
Arid and semi-arid regions bear the brunt of these incidents, with the rainy season creating perfect conditions for human-snake encounters as rising water levels drive snakes to higher, drier areas – often people's homes.
Tana River residents are now calling for immediate interventions from both wildlife authorities and healthcare officials.
"We are left to our own fate," says Odha, a community elder. "At night, when a snake attacks, we have no one to call. If we kill it, we are fined. If it bites us, we die in the silence of the night."
The community wants the Kenya Wildlife Service to establish a toll-free emergency number specifically for snake-related incidents. More urgently, they're pleading with county officials to stock all health facilities with adequate anti-venom supplies.
Mr Endekwa warns that with current weather conditions, snake intrusions will likely continue. He urges residents to be vigilant and report snakebite cases immediately to improve chances of successful treatment.
For now, in villages across Tana River County, people have developed a new bedtime routine – checking under beds, inside shoes, and behind furniture before daring to rest. Parents are teaching even the youngest children to inspect their surroundings carefully.
The battle between humans and serpents continues, an unwelcome consequence of our changing climate pushing creatures from their natural habitats into our homes.
Until more comprehensive solutions are implemented, the residents of Tana River sleep with one eye open, listening for that telltale rustle in the dark, hoping that the next encounter with these unwanted guests won't be their last.
