Following https://github.com/h2oai/h2o-2/wiki/installing-python-2.7-on-centos-6.3.-follow-this-sequence-exactly-for-centos-machine-only

yum install -y centos-release-SCL
yum install -y python27
which python

Following probably unimportant

yum groups mark convert
yum groups mark install "Development tools"

yum install zlib-devel
yum install bzip2-devel
yum install openssl-devel
yum install ncurses-devel
yum install sqlite-devel

cd /opt
wget --no-check-certificate https://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.5/Python-2.7.5.tar.xz
tar xf Python-2.7.5.tar.xz
cd Python-2.7.5
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make && make altinstall

End unimportant

wget --no-check-certificate https://bootstrap.pypa.io/ez_setup.py
sudo /usr/local/bin/python2.7 ez_setup.py
sudo /usr/local/bin/easy_install-2.7 pip

yum install libffi-devel

sudo /usr/local/bin/easy_install-2.7 requests
sudo /usr/local/bin/easy_install-2.7 psutil
sudo /usr/local/bin/easy_install-2.7 paramiko