Pastor arrested for transporting snake
Crime and Justice
By
Fred Kagonye
| Feb 25, 2026
Police in Kanduyi, Bungoma county are currently holding ‘a man of God’ and his follower after they allegedly found the two transporting a cobra snake.
According to a police report, Nahason Atela (Pastor) and Emmanuel Maloba were riding a motorcycle when police on patrol stopped them for a routine check.
They were then escorted to the police station for interrogation where during a search the officers discovered the snake in a white bag.
The two men, who both reside in Koyonzo village told the officers that Atela had gone to pray for Maloba, who was ailing, in his house.
READ MORE
Travellers to complete airport transactions via mobile money
How UAE's Sh130 billion AI initiative could transform African economies
How a grieving Busia couple turned agony into profitable venture
SL-African maritime experts urge safeguards over IMO carbon curbs
Dashboards: How to locate the blind spot
New "air taxis" debut in central China as nation accelerates low-altitude drive
KENHA: Nithi bridge construction to take two years
KenGen eyes direct sales to escape Kenya Power's debt trap
Kenya moves to advance gender equity, climate resilience in construction sector
The preacher alleged that the Holy Spirit showed him that there was a snake that had been buried at the corner of Maloba’s house.
Atela then took a hoe and started digging the house when the snake emerged from the hole and he secured it using an old white net.
By the time the officers arrested the two, they said that they were headed to a Church in Bukembe where Atela intended to offer a burnt sacrifice of the snake and a sheep which they were to pick on their way there.
Maloba said that his parents had paid for sheep.
Officers from the Kenya Wildlife Service were informed and came to collect the snake and took it to the Kitale Museum for identification and storage.
In Uasin Gishu County a student from Moi University died by suicide.
A police report shows that Dickson Mutinda had been left behind by his colleagues in his house as they went to campus for afternoon classes.
Mutinda did not turn up for the class and upon his colleagues coming back they found he had locked the house from inside and was not opening despite several knocks which prompted them to peep through the window.
Inside they saw his body dangling on a rope tied to the roof and they raised alarm.
The responders called in the police who upon breaking into the house found a suicide note which read in part, “To those I love. I have reached a point where I can no longer keep fighting. am so sorry to leave you with this sorrow.”
They removed the body for the morgue where a post mortem will take place.
In Lamu County, a seven-year-old died by drowning while out on a swim.
A police report shows the deceased, Amos Kaimenyi, had gone to graze his family’s goats in the evening after school.
His mother told police that the goats returned home but he did not which prompted a manhunt.
While she out looking for him she found the shirt and short he was wearing near a dam.
Police and members of the public managed to retrieve the body from the dam which was positively identified by the mother.