diff --git a/kivy/gesture.py b/kivy/gesture.py
index 67b47e0ff..ec9477cc9 100644
--- a/kivy/gesture.py
+++ b/kivy/gesture.py
@@ -37,10 +37,22 @@ import pickle
 import base64
 import zlib
 import math
-from io import StringIO
 
+from kivy.compat import PY2
 from kivy.vector import Vector
 
+# XXX we can't use io.StringIO in PY2 cause it require unicode
+# PY2 / StringIO ( str or unicode )
+# PY2 / cStringIO ( str )
+# PY3 / io.StringIO ( unicode )
+if PY2:
+    try:
+        from cStringIO import StringIO
+    except ImportError:
+        from StringIO import StringIO
+else:
+    from io import StringIO
+
 
 class GestureDatabase(object):
     '''Class to handle a gesture database.'''