Conservationist, author of I Dreamed of Africa ambushed and shot at her ranch in Kenya

[demmiblue]

Source: Washington Post



Since Kuki Gallmann moved to Kenya in 1972, the conservationist’s life has been plagued by loss and tragedy. In Africa, her husband was killed in a car accident, and her 17-year-old son died from the bite of a snake he had studied with avid curiosity.

And yet instead of returning to a comfortable life in her native Italy, Gallmann stayed, compelled by her love for the land and desire to protect it. She would chronicle her experiences in the best-selling novel “I Dreamed of Africa,” which would later be turned into a movie starring Kim Basinger.

Now, a wave of misfortune has struck Gallmann again, stemming from months-long local violence and drought. The prominent author and conservationist, 73, was driving to her property in Laikipia on Sunday morning, assessing damage inflicted by arsonists at one of her tourism lodges, when her vehicle was ambushed by gunmen. She was shot in the stomach, according to the Laikipia Farmers’ Association.

Rangers with the Kenya Wildlife Service helped her flee the area, and she was transported to a hospital in Nanyuki, a town south of Laikipia, where a British field medic treated her. Then she was flown to a hospital in Nairobi to undergo surgery. Gallmann suffered serious injuries but was in stable condition after surgery, family members told authorities.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/04/24/conservationist-author-of-i-dreamed-of-africa-shot-at-her-ranch-in-kenya/

[trusty elf]

1. Damn, that's terrible.

I'm glad she survived. What a screwed up world we live in.

[riversedge]

4. Agree.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Activist Kuki Gallmann Shot At Her Kenyan Ranch

04/23/2017 04:17 pm ET
Activist Kuki Gallmann Shot At Her Kenyan Ranch
She is recovering from the attack after surgery in Nairobi, friends and family say.
By Lydia O’Connor


The 73-year-old was surveying her Laikipia property when herders reportedly shot her in the hip and stomach. The herders were searching for pasture as Kenya suffers an intense drought, local police chief Ezekiel Chepkowny said, according to The Associated Press.

. . .

Herders have said they need land from Gallman’s 139-square-mile conservancy to graze their livestock. Authorities believe some of them recently set fire to a retreat on Gallman’s property favored by her late son.

. . .

A Kenyan citizen and author of bestseller I Dreamed of Africa, Gallman has been raising funds to rebuild the retreat and improve security on her land.

Sveva Gallman, Gallman’s daughter, told NPR earlier this month that while they’ve always allowed herders to graze their animals on the land, more herders from far away have showed up with thousands of cattle and increased tensions. She suspects that some of the livestock is owned by wealthy politicians.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kuki-gallmann-shot-kenya_us_58fcefeee4b06b9cb917b120

[HoneyBadger]

3. Same economic justice issues we faced during the election

I recently returned from Africa and tourism is big money, $650/day US for food and lodging when the locals are starving attracts the wrong attention.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/31/cattle-herders-fire-italian-author-kenyan-lodge-set-ablaze/

Kenyan herders have fired shots at an Italian-born author and conservationist and her daughter after burning down her lodge.

The raid on Kuki Gallmann's Laikipia Nature Conservancy followed the burning of her Mukutan Retreat.

It is the latest in a string of incursions against Kenya's wildlife conservancies and private farms by nomadic cattle herders armed with rifles in the drought-stricken Laikipia region.

The lodge is frequented mainly by European tourists, who can pay more than $650 (£520) a night to stay.

There were, however, no visitors present at the time of the attack on Wednesday, which comes just weeks after Tristan Voorspuy, 61, a former British army officer and lodge owner, was shot dead by herdsmen in the area.

"Yesterday evening our operations buildings and our house came under direct gunfire from armed men," Miss Gallmann's daughter, Sveva Gallmann, said in a statement after the attack on Wednesday night. "My nine-month-old daughter was in the house with her carers. I was shot at three times as I ran between the buildings to get to her."

The Laikipia region, which is spread over around 10,000 square kilometres (3,861 square miles), is a base for many of Kenya's wealthiest landowners

The Gallmann family, which owns the 400 square kilometre Laikipia Nature Conservancy, employs 250 Kenyans at its lodges.

The area has become increasingly dangerous in recent months due largely to a drought that is causing herders to look for new pastures. Local media said the attack on Ms Gallmann, who wrote the bestselling memoir I Dreamed of Africa, which was made into a 2000 film starring Kim Basinger, was most likely a reprisal after Kenyan security forces had shot dead cattle that belonged to the herders days before. At least seven out of 30 tourism lodges in Laikipia have closed since the start of 2017 due to the violence in the area.

The Kenyan government sent forces into the area to restore order after the murder of Mr Voorspuy, leading to skirmishes that have left dozens of herdsmen dead and thousands of locals displaced in the violence.

Nearly 400 herders have been arrested, the police said. Miss Gallman says the attack on her property, which is now being guarded by Kenyan troops, has nothing to do with grazing land.

[not fooled]

5. Is this drought and its consequences

global-warning related?

[maxsolomon]

8. Maybe.

Causation is nearly impossible to show.

[montanacowboy]

6. Kim Basinger?

HUH? I believe it was Meryl Streep

[demmiblue]

7. That was "Out of Africa".