In his childhood, David Kaula Musyoka was used to encountering snakes. Snakes would cross village paths in Kitui County, and he confronted them with bravery.
Mr Musyoka, who works with the County Government of Kitui as a driver, had also watched wildlife documentaries of animals fighting, but he had never imagined he could be caught in a fight between an eagle and a snake, a cobra to be precise.
In a stranger-than-fiction drama, the 39-year-old was left fighting for his life at Mwingi Level 4 hospital, after being attacked by the snake that fell from the sky, landing on the roof of his moving vehicle.
The wounded snake, which had been dropped from the sky by the eagle, slithered into the vehicle through the window, as the driver approached Kwa Mbungu shopping centre in Mwingi Central.
Mr Musyoka was driving from Mui Basin to Mwingi town on a routine field assignment and was about to join the Mwingi-Garissa highway when hell fell from the sky.
“I heard something bang the roof of the double cab pick-up, and before I could slow down to check what was happening, the snake had entered the vehicle through the window, landing on the front passenger seat,” said Mr Musyoka.
Horrified
The horrified driver immediately decided to stop the vehicle to escape from the angry snake that was bleeding from the belly.
“As soon as my left hand touched the gear lever, the cobra struck, its fangs sinking into the index finger. I stopped the vehicle and got out of the car, with the snake hanging on my hand,” he narrated from his bed at Mwingi Level Four Hospital.
When people at Kwa Mbungu market saw a screaming man, frantically trying to shake off a snake hanging onto his hand, they rushed to help, and it fell to the ground. They looked around for something with which to kill the reptile.
Unknown to Mr Musyoka and his rescuers, the snake, measuring about four feet long, had been snatched up by the eagle. As the drama was playing out on the ground, the bird of prey was perched on a nearby acacia tree, probably wondering where its lunch had escaped to.
And before the crowd could find sticks and stones to kill the snake, the eagle swiftly descended on its prey –snatched it up and flew away, leaving the villagers more bewildered.
Dizzy
The focus of the crowd shifted to giving Mr Musyoka some first aid and rushing him to hospital for treatment.
“I started feeling dizziness and irritation in my eyes and I was worried the snake venom was taking a toll on me. I was rushed to Mwingi Level Four Hospital where I was immediately admitted and put on anti-venom treatment” Mr Musyoka said, adding that from the time he was bitten, at 3pm, he was disoriented and only came back to his normal self at 9pm.
A medical report seen by Nation.Africa shows that Mr Musyoka had a snake bite on the left hand and two visible fang marks beneath the index finger.
In arid areas and in game parks where snakes abound, cases of eagles or other birds of prey fighting snakes are common. National Geographic Wild – the global pay TV network, has produced numerous documentaries on how eagles snatch up snakes, sometimes letting them go if they’re in danger of being bitten.
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