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Author, Conservationist Kuki Gallmann Wounded in Kenya


Village women collect food donations from the Laikipia Nature Conservancy in Kenya, where owner Kuki Gallmann distributes staple foods and water to help her neighbors get through the drought, March 19, 2017. (Amos Wangwa/VOA)
Village women collect food donations from the Laikipia Nature Conservancy in Kenya, where owner Kuki Gallmann distributes staple foods and water to help her neighbors get through the drought, March 19, 2017. (Amos Wangwa/VOA)

A Kenyan police official says novelist and conservationist Kuki Gallmann has been shot and injured at her ranch after herders invaded in search of pasture to save their animals from drought.

Ezekiel Chepkowny said Sunday that Gallmann was patrolling the ranch when she was attacked and shot in the stomach. Chepkowny says her driver also survived the attack and drove her to the airport in Laikipia, where she was airlifted to the capital, Nairobi, for further treatment.

The Italian-born conservationist and author, 73, wrote the memoir I Dreamed of Africa.

Richard Constant, the deputy chairman of the Laikipia Farmer Association, says suspicion falls on herders from the Pokot community who have invaded Gallmann’s ranch several times.

Kenya is facing a drought that has affected half the country and has been declared a national disaster. Pressure on herders has led to violence.

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