Kuki Gallman, an environmentalist and owner of a conservancy in Kenya, was shot at by a group of suspected herders on Sunday morning, Reuters reported. The 73-year-old Italian-born Gallman, who also wrote the bestselling memoir I Dreamed of Africa, owned the Laikipia Nature Conservancy and has long been protesting against encroachment by herders.
Gallman, who was shot in the stomach, was first treated at the Nanyuki Hospital and then airlifted to Nairobi. In March this year, herders had fired at Gallman and her daughter and set a lodge owned by her on fire.
Sunday’s incident comes amid reports of a large number of herders invading private ranches and farms in the drought-hit Laikipia region of Nairobi in search of pasture for their cattle. The tussle for grazing land led to widespread violence in the area. At least seven out of 30 tourism lodges in Laikipia have closed since the start of 2017 because of the conflict, The Telegraph had reported in March.
Gallmann moved to Kenya in 1972 with her husband Paolo and son Emanuele, and acquired Ol ari Nyiro, a 98,000-acre estate in Western Laikipia, in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley. After the death of her husband and son, she decided to stay back in Kenya and work in the field of ecological conservation. She set up the Gallmann Memorial Foundation, which promotes the coexistence of people and nature in Africa and is active in education, biodiversity research and habitat protection.
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