diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index eaaec93..765e70e 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive
 # - remove defunct packages
 # - start supervisor
 #
-RUN apt-get -y update && apt-get -y upgrade && apt-get -y install git curl python python-requests supervisor
+RUN apt-get -y update && apt-get -y upgrade && apt-get -y install git python python-requests supervisor
 RUN curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python
 ADD resources/supervisor/supervisord.conf /etc/supervisor/supervisord.conf
 RUN pip install git+https://github.com/autodesk-cloud/ochopod.git
diff --git a/ochopod/bindings/ec2/kubernetes.py b/ochopod/bindings/ec2/kubernetes.py
index 48de1ec..744ac6e 100644
--- a/ochopod/bindings/ec2/kubernetes.py
+++ b/ochopod/bindings/ec2/kubernetes.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
 from pykka import ThreadingFuture
 from pykka.exceptions import Timeout, ActorDeadError
 from flask import Flask, request
-from requests import post
+import requests
 from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth
 
 #: Our ochopod logger.
@@ -106,9 +106,9 @@ def boot(self, lifecycle, model=Reactive, local=0):
                 # - we'll retrieve the underlying metadata using curl
                 #
                 def _aws(token):
-                    code, lines = shell('curl -f http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/%s' % token)
-                    assert code is 0, 'unable to lookup EC2 metadata for %s (are you running on EC2 ?)' % token
-                    return lines[0]
+                    result = requests.get('http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/%s' % token)
+                    assert result.status_code is requests.codes.ok, 'unable to lookup EC2 metadata for %s (are you running on EC2 ?)' % token
+                    return result.text[0]
 
                 #
                 # - lame workaround to fetch the master IP and credentials as there does not seem to be a way to
@@ -117,9 +117,10 @@ def _aws(token):
                 # - don't forget to merge the resulting output
                 #
                 def _k8s(token):
-                    code, lines = shell('curl -f -u %s:%s -k https://%s/api/v1beta3/namespaces/default/%s' % (env['KUBERNETES_USER'], env['KUBERNETES_PWD'], env['KUBERNETES_MASTER'], token))
-                    assert code is 0, 'unable to look the RO service up (is the master running ?)'
-                    return json.loads(''.join(lines))
+                    result = requests.get('https://%s//api/v1beta3/namespaces/default/%s' % (env['KUBERNETES_MASTER'], token),
+                                          auth=(env['KUBERNETES_USER'], env['KUBERNETES_PWD']))
+                    assert result.status_code is requests.codes.ok, 'unable to look the RO service up (is the master running ?)'
+                    return result.json()
 
                 #
                 # - look our local k8s pod up
@@ -333,7 +334,7 @@ def run(self):
                 #
                 shutdown(executor)
                 shutdown(coordinator)
-                post('http://127.0.0.1:%s/terminate' % env['ochopod_port'])
+                requests.post('http://127.0.0.1:%s/terminate' % env['ochopod_port'])
 
         except KeyboardInterrupt:
 
@@ -343,4 +344,4 @@ def run(self):
 
             logger.fatal('unexpected condition -> %s' % diagnostic(failure))
 
-        exit(1)
\ No newline at end of file
+        exit(1)
diff --git a/ochopod/bindings/ec2/marathon.py b/ochopod/bindings/ec2/marathon.py
index c57eba6..df783e7 100644
--- a/ochopod/bindings/ec2/marathon.py
+++ b/ochopod/bindings/ec2/marathon.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
 from pykka import ThreadingFuture
 from pykka.exceptions import Timeout, ActorDeadError
 from flask import Flask, request
-from requests import post
+import requests
 
 #: Our ochopod logger.
 logger = logging.getLogger('ochopod')
@@ -119,9 +119,9 @@ def boot(self, lifecycle, model=Reactive, local=0):
                 # - get our underlying metadata using curl
                 #
                 def _peek(token, strict=True):
-                    code, lines = shell('curl -f http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/%s' % token)
-                    assert not strict or code is 0, 'unable to lookup EC2 metadata for %s (are you running on EC2 ?)' % token
-                    return lines[0]
+                    result = requests.get('http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/%s' % token)
+                    assert not strict or result.status_code is requests.codes.ok, 'unable to lookup EC2 metadata for %s (are you running on EC2 ?)' % token
+                    return result.text[0]
 
                 #
                 # - get our local and public IPV4 addresses
@@ -335,7 +335,7 @@ def run(self):
                 #
                 shutdown(executor)
                 shutdown(coordinator)
-                post('http://127.0.0.1:%s/terminate' % env['ochopod_port'])
+                requests.post('http://127.0.0.1:%s/terminate' % env['ochopod_port'])
 
         except KeyboardInterrupt:
 
@@ -343,4 +343,4 @@ def run(self):
 
         except Exception as failure:
 
-            logger.fatal('unexpected condition -> %s' % diagnostic(failure))
\ No newline at end of file
+            logger.fatal('unexpected condition -> %s' % diagnostic(failure))