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Hamisi Chiboga PHOTO: Tobias Chanji/Standard.
A Mombasa snake charmer who confesses to practising black magic for years has finally ‘seen the light.’
Hamisi ‘Manyoka’ Chiboga came into the limelight when he was bitten by a snake on Christmas Day and hospitalised for three days.
‘Manyoka’ confessed his snake charming work was aided by juju that he used to ‘befriend’ the poisonous reptiles.
He told The Nairobian that he regrets his actions and mostly, when he lied on TV that a snake, which bit him in Diani was a neighbour’s yet it was his.
“Lies don’t last forever, but the truth is that the green mamba that bit me was mine,” he confessed.
He adds that the green mamba was pregnant when it mated with a black mamba.
‘Manyoka’ was admitted at the Diani Beach Hospital where he accrued a Sh48,000 bill, which included anti-venom to neutralise the poison.
Although he earns his income as a snake charmer, besides keeping chameleons, tortoises, a crocodile and magical plants around his ‘Jungle Park’ homestead, he could not clear the bill.
However, the area MCA came to his rescue and sorted the bill.
Manyoka said to become a snake charmer, there is a concoction of a puff adder’s head, green mamba, fish, a poisonous tree (mwadiga in Digo) and some black medicine that one swallows and also special grass (ukokwe) associated with dark forces.
He claims a snake becomes mellow, docile and subdued by these potion. And even when bitten, you can tell if the poison has entered the bloodstream or not.
That is the trick that snake charmers use when they kiss a poisonous snake and are not bitten.
But every trade has its rules.
“The juju will only work if the rules are properly followed. For example, you should not wash yourself with water from a river or stream. Further, you are not allowed to make love to a woman who is in her periods,” he explained.
“I was bitten once, but the recent one was too much to handle,” he added.
When asked how come he was bitten, Manyoka said, “everything has an end and you cannot lie forever.”
But Manyoka, who keeps snakes including the green mamba, a boomslang, puff adder, spitting cobra and rock python, is not quitting his trade just yet.
“ I will only stop using black magic, but will continue applying the skills I have acquired.
