These snakes are giants. Black mambas can stretch up to 14 feet, and the longest king cobra ever recorded was 19 feet.

In contrast, puff adders are tiny, short of six inches and not above six feet long, but very thick. They have long, retractable canines which can deliver the poison into the muscle.

Their venom destroys blood clotting factors, and victims die a slow, gruesome death, bleeding in the brain, eyes and mouth.

Identifying the attacker can help tailor treatment. But many people never see the snake that bites them, or if they do, they can’t identify it. To the untrained eye, venomous snakes may be indistinguishable from harmless ones.

Names don’t make it easy. Green mambas are green, but black mambas are pale gray to dark brown; they are named so because the inside of the mouth is black. They are better recognized by their coffin-shaped head and awkward smile.

Some scientists did building AI models identify snakes, so that anyone with a smartphone can tell them apart.

About a third of snake bites are children. They occur less often in pregnant women, but outcomes — which includes miscarriage, placental abruption, abruption, fetal malformations and maternal and fetal death — can be disastrous.

Farmers are often the victims. Losing a breadwinner devastates a family.

Ruth Munuve’s husband worked as a driver in Nairobi and came home to the family farm every other weekend. He was bitten on Saturday April 2020, aged 42, while walking through bushes on his way home from a night out.

Two hospitals struggling to treat Covid patients turned him down. When he died two days later, his body had doubled in size, a sign of a viper bite, said his sister Esther Nziu.

Mrs Munuve now grows maize and beans, mainly for food, and sells green beans. Mrs. Nziu has five children of her own, but she does her best to help raise her brother’s four children.

Money is scarce, but the women still paid to fortify the house. “I don’t want anyone else to be bitten by snakes,” Ms Nziu said.