If you'd encode it, you'd need to add a line specifying the encoding at the beginning of the file, so the python interpreter would know how to decode it again, so it can be interpreted afterwards. And any human could just check that line, and decode it using some tools, and thus get the source code once again...
So I assume you meant encrypting it. But what and how would decrypt it again? How do you plan on storing the key, so it couldn't be found easily, and thus the python file be decrypted easily?
Python isn't made for such things... If you plan on infecting more than one tech-illiterate person with it, then you should go for compiled languages. And no, "compiling" python isn't an answer to that, as there're decompilers for all python freezers out there...