diff --git a/tools/Dockerfile.centos6.devel b/tools/Dockerfile.centos6.devel
index dd519a0a08bd9fc02b7ad51d248912c2a22a811d..dd5a2ef786ed8a9c239a99cabbcfe2d482e6341c 100644
--- a/tools/Dockerfile.centos6.devel
+++ b/tools/Dockerfile.centos6.devel
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ RUN yum -y install wget && \
     wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.5/Python-2.7.5.tgz && \
     tar -zxf Python-2.7.5.tgz && \
     cd Python-2.7.5 && \
-    ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/python2.7 --enable-shared && \
+    ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/python2.7 --enable-shared --enable-unicode=ucs4 && \
     make all && make install && \
     make clean && \
     echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/python2.7/bin:$PATH' >> /root/.bashrc && \
diff --git a/tools/Dockerfile.centos6.gpu.devel b/tools/Dockerfile.centos6.gpu.devel
index 3288f09d4cacc8aa7fa0bd112dc6bf97939ecde5..c34780c151e960134af5f8b448e0465b8285e8b2 100644
--- a/tools/Dockerfile.centos6.gpu.devel
+++ b/tools/Dockerfile.centos6.gpu.devel
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ RUN yum -y install wget && \
     wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.5/Python-2.7.5.tgz && \
     tar -zxf Python-2.7.5.tgz && \
     cd Python-2.7.5 && \
-    ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/python2.7 --enable-shared && \
+    ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/python2.7 --enable-shared --enable-unicode=ucs4 && \
     make all && make install && \
     make clean && \
     echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/python2.7/bin:$PATH' >> /root/.bashrc && \