Author shot in latest attack on landowners

KENYA: Kuki Gallmann, the Italian-born author and conservationist, was being treated in a Nairobi hospital yesterday after being shot in the stomach near her lodge in Kenya.

Gallmann, 73, who wrote the bestselling novel I Dreamed of Africa, was ambushed while driving her vehicle.

She was rushed to the Nanyuki County Hospital for emergency treatment before being flown to Nairobi, her daughter, Sveva Makena, 26, said. She was in a ‘‘stable condition’’ yesterday.

Makena said earlier this month that the Laikipia Plateau is under pressure from a ‘‘noxious politics and drought’’.

In March, Kenyan cattle herders fired shots at Gallmann and her daughter after burning down her luxury lodge at the Laikipia Nature Conservancy.

Nomadic cattle herders have been carrying out raids against Kenya’s wildlife conservancies and private farms in the Laikipia region, which is near the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy where Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton in 2010.

The attack on Gallmann comes after Tristan Voorspuy, 61, a lodge owner and former British Army officer, was shot dead by herdsmen in the area on March 5.

The Laikipia region, which is spread over about 1 million hectares, is a base for many of Kenya’s wealthiest landowners. The Gallmann family, which owns the 40,000ha Laikipia Nature Conservancy, employs 250 Kenyans.

But the area has become increasingly dangerous, largely due to a drought causing herders to look for new pastures.

The attack on Gallmann’s lodge was believed to be a reprisal after Kenya security forces shot dead cattle that belonged to the herders days before. – Telegraph Group