Python 2.6 Module for GDAL 1.9.2, ImportError

I work on an internal network(IE I cant get the latest 1.11 stuff) and have GDAL 1.9.2 setup on a Red Hat Linux Enterprise Server 6. My linux box has python 2.6.6 however the python binding I received in the swig directory appears to be for either python 2.7.5 or python 3.2.

I ran the setup.py but when I try to import osgeo or gdal I get this message

Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "<stdin>:, line 1, in <module>
    File "osgeo/__init__.py", line 21 in <module>
        _gdal = swig_import_helper()
    File "osgeo/__init__.py", line 13, in swig_import_helper
        import _gdal
ImportError: No module named _gdal

Anyone got a link to the proper python module or know of how I can get this to work. Got a lot of raster data that needs ripping apart.