Conservationist, author of ‘I Dreamed of Africa’ ambushed and shot at her ranch in Kenya
The inwards track on Washington politics.
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This post has been updated.
Since Kuki Gallmann moved to Kenya in 1972, the conservationist’s life has been plagued by loss and tragedy. In Africa, her spouse was killed in a car accident, and her 17-year-old son died from a snake bite.
And yet instead of returning to a comfy life in her native Italy, Gallmann stayed, compelled by her love for the land and desire to protect it. She would chronicle her practices in the best-selling novel “I Dreamed of Africa,” which would 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. Gallmann, 73, was driving to her property in Laikipia on Sunday morning, assessing harm inflicted by arsonists at one of her tourism lodges, when her vehicle was ambushed by gunmen. She was shot in the tummy, according to the Laikipia Farmers’ Association.
Rangers with the Kenya Wildlife Service helped Gallmann flee the area, and she was taken 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 fall under surgery. Gallmann suffered serious injuries but was in stable condition after surgery, family members told authorities.
Tho’ it is not yet known exactly who is responsible for the shooting, the gunmen are believed to be armed cattle-herders who have been invading Gallmann’s land and other nearby ranches in search of grazing land. A fierce drought has driven these herders — and ems of thousands of cattle — onto private farms and ranches, local media reported.
The Associated Press reported Monday morning that two suspects in Gallmann’s shooting were killed by security agents, according to Kenya Internal Security Minister Joseph Nkaissery. He blamed the shooting on “isolated banditry activity,” according to AP, and said a gun was recovered after Sunday’s attack and was being examined to see if it was used to shoot the conservationist.
Many residents of the area accuse local politicians of inciting the violence ahead of the August elections, attempting to drive out voters who might oppose them and win votes by promising supporters access to private land. At least one local politician has already been arrested in connection to the violence. Mathew Lempurkel, the member of parliament for Laikipia North, in March was arrested in Nairobi for inciting the murder of Tristan Voorspuy, a British military veteran who was shot to death while railing a pony and exploring the remains of one of his ranches. Prosecutors later declined to press charges against Lempurkel, citing lack of evidence.
Kenya’s political leaders and local farming authorities have denounced the violence and Sunday’s attack on Gallmann, one of the area’s most prominent ranch owners. The Gallmann family wields the 100,000-acre Laikipia Nature Conservancy and employs two hundred fifty Kenyans on its luxury lodges, ranch and other businesses on the land.
“For months these criminals have been rampaging around with their illegal weapons, demolishing lives and livelihoods,” said Martin Evans, chairman of the Laikipia Farmers’ Association, calling the attack a “vicious attack against an elderly and defenseless woman.”
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta decried the shooting, warning politicians in the area not to inflame pressure through “reckless rhetoric.” In a statement Sunday afternoon Kenyatta said, “Politicians encouraging invasions of privately-owned property or attacks on individuals can expect strong deterrent activity in terms of the law.”
Raila Odinga, Kenya’s opposition leader and the country’s former prime minister wrote in a statement that his party, the National Super Alliance, detests and condemns “the hooliganism taking roots in this part of the country and request activity that will restore order before things get downright out of control.”
More than thirty people have died in the conflict over grazing land, the Associated Press reported. Kenya’s military and police have been working for more than a month to drive the herders out of the private land they’ve invaded, but their efforts seem to have escalated the violence. When driven from one ranch, nomadic herders will simply stir onto another ranch.
U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Robert F. Godec on Monday condemned the attack on Gallman “and all other violence that has taken place in latest months in Laikipia and Baringo.” Godec said in a statement, “I urge all Kenyans to refrain from violence and urge the government to take strong activity to hold accountable all those responsible for the attacks and uphold the rule of law,”
Laikipia, located in Kenya’s central highlands, is one of Kenya’s most popular areas for tourism, and many business owners are afraid that if the herders are not stopped, the violence could spread and the economy could take a hit.
Late last month, a luxury lodge possessed by Gallmann was burned down by suspected cattle herders in an attack believed to have been retaliation for a police operation. Police had reportedly shot dead about one hundred cattle in her surrounding conservancy. Since then, a number of other lodge facilities and farm buildings on her property have been “systematically demolished and looted by the invading militias,” the farmer’s association wrote in a news release.
After the arson fire at the Mukutan Retreat lodge, Gallmann posted a poem on Facebook earlier this month, writing that “with a bleeding heart” she was attempting to build up the strength to see what was left of the lodge, “the monument of my love and loss and longing.”
“They burnt a bit of my soul,” she wrote. “They knew how it would hurt.”
As the armed boys set fire to the lodge, they repeatedly shot at her daughter, Sveva Gallmann, who lived nearby. “Our operations buildings and our house came under direct gunfire from armed boys,” she said in a statement, Reuters reported. “My nine-month-old daughter was in the house with her carers and I was shot at three times as I ran inbetween the buildings to get to her.”
Speaking to the Fresh York Times this month, Gallmann said that in the past few days, herders had been nearing closer and closer to her home and were attacking her property in vengeance for the latest military activity against them.
This is not the very first time raiders have attempted to kill Gallmann. In 2009, she was driving alone across her property when herders surrounded her and hurled stones, hitting her in the head and palm, the Fresh York Times noted. She hardly escaped. Despite the dangers, Gallmann told the newspaper: “There is absolutely no question that I want to stay in this place, die in this place, which could be any minute.”
Gallmann has called Kenya her home since she moved there in 1972, divorced and recovering from a crippling car accident. She found a fresh embark in Kenya with her 2nd spouse, Paolo, an adventure-loving Italian aristocrat. In 1980, when Paolo was driving home a cradle for his yet-to-be-born daughter, he was hit head on by a truck and killed instantly. Three years later, Gallmann’s 17-year-old son by her very first marriage, Emanuele, was killed by a poisonous bite from a puff adder.
When her book very first published, some claimed the white European’s story of love and loss in Africa gave off an air of colonialism. But others have praised Gallmann as a viable force in the field of conservation. The Kenyan citizen has waged a war against rampant poaching in an attempt to protect lions, leopards, elephants and other endangered wildlife in Laikipia. She has funded scholarships to help Kenyans use pharmaceutical technology and tribal medicine to halt deforestation and fight disease.
“Landowners? … I do not feel like a landowner,” she wrote in “I Dreamed of Africa.” “I cannot believe that we truly own the land. It was there before us, and it will be there after we pass. I believe we can only take care of it, as well as possible, as trustees, for our lifetime. I was not even born here. It is for me a fine privilege to be responsible for a chunk of Africa.”
In memory of her hubby and son, she created the Gallmann Memorial Foundation, which promotes “coexistence” inbetween humans and nature. “On the grave of both I swore to dedicate my life and my resources to making a difference for the chunk of Africa where we live, which they loved,” she said in an interview with Kenya Citizen TV. Both her spouse and son are buried on her ranch.
“There is nothing that people can do to scare or to make me heart,” she said.
Conservationist, author of ‘I Dreamed of Africa’ ambushed and shot at her ranch in Kenya – The Washington Post
Conservationist, author of ‘I Dreamed of Africa’ ambushed and shot at her ranch in Kenya
The inwards track on Washington politics.
*Invalid email address
This post has been updated.
Since Kuki Gallmann moved to Kenya in 1972, the conservationist’s life has been plagued by loss and tragedy. In Africa, her spouse was killed in a car accident, and her 17-year-old son died from a snake bite.
And yet instead of returning to a convenient life in her native Italy, Gallmann stayed, compelled by her love for the land and desire to protect it. She would chronicle her practices in the best-selling novel “I Dreamed of Africa,” which would 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. Gallmann, 73, was driving to her property in Laikipia on Sunday morning, assessing harm inflicted by arsonists at one of her tourism lodges, when her vehicle was ambushed by gunmen. She was shot in the tummy, according to the Laikipia Farmers’ Association.
Rangers with the Kenya Wildlife Service helped Gallmann flee the area, and she was taken 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 go through surgery. Gallmann suffered serious injuries but was in stable condition after surgery, family members told authorities.
However it is not yet known exactly who is responsible for the shooting, the gunmen are believed to be armed cattle-herders who have been invading Gallmann’s land and other nearby ranches in search of grazing land. A fierce drought has driven these herders — and ems of thousands of cattle — onto private farms and ranches, local media reported.
The Associated Press reported Monday morning that two suspects in Gallmann’s shooting were killed by security agents, according to Kenya Internal Security Minister Joseph Nkaissery. He blamed the shooting on “isolated banditry activity,” according to AP, and said a gun was recovered after Sunday’s attack and was being examined to see if it was used to shoot the conservationist.
Many residents of the area accuse local politicians of inciting the violence ahead of the August elections, attempting to drive out voters who might oppose them and win votes by promising supporters access to private land. At least one local politician has already been arrested in connection to the violence. Mathew Lempurkel, the member of parliament for Laikipia North, in March was arrested in Nairobi for inciting the murder of Tristan Voorspuy, a British military veteran who was shot to death while railing a pony and investigating the remains of one of his ranches. Prosecutors later declined to press charges against Lempurkel, citing lack of evidence.
Kenya’s political leaders and local farming authorities have denounced the violence and Sunday’s attack on Gallmann, one of the area’s most prominent ranch owners. The Gallmann family possesses the 100,000-acre Laikipia Nature Conservancy and employs two hundred fifty Kenyans on its luxury lodges, ranch and other businesses on the land.
“For months these criminals have been rampaging around with their illegal weapons, demolishing lives and livelihoods,” said Martin Evans, chairman of the Laikipia Farmers’ Association, calling the attack a “vicious attack against an elderly and defenseless woman.”
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta decried the shooting, warning politicians in the area not to inflame strain through “reckless rhetoric.” In a statement Sunday afternoon Kenyatta said, “Politicians encouraging invasions of privately-owned property or attacks on individuals can expect strong deterrent activity in terms of the law.”
Raila Odinga, Kenya’s opposition leader and the country’s former prime minister wrote in a statement that his party, the National Super Alliance, detests and condemns “the hooliganism taking roots in this part of the country and request act that will restore order before things get downright out of control.”
More than thirty people have died in the conflict over grazing land, the Associated Press reported. Kenya’s military and police have been working for more than a month to drive the herders out of the private land they’ve invaded, but their efforts seem to have escalated the violence. When driven from one ranch, nomadic herders will simply budge onto another ranch.
U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Robert F. Godec on Monday condemned the attack on Gallman “and all other violence that has taken place in latest months in Laikipia and Baringo.” Godec said in a statement, “I urge all Kenyans to refrain from violence and urge the government to take strong activity to hold accountable all those responsible for the attacks and uphold the rule of law,”
Laikipia, located in Kenya’s central highlands, is one of Kenya’s most popular areas for tourism, and many business owners are afraid that if the herders are not stopped, the violence could spread and the economy could take a hit.
Late last month, a luxury lodge possessed by Gallmann was burned down by suspected cattle herders in an attack believed to have been retaliation for a police operation. Police had reportedly shot dead about one hundred cattle in her surrounding conservancy. Since then, a number of other lodge facilities and farm buildings on her property have been “systematically demolished and looted by the invading militias,” the farmer’s association wrote in a news release.
After the arson fire at the Mukutan Retreat lodge, Gallmann posted a poem on Facebook earlier this month, writing that “with a bleeding heart” she was attempting to build up the strength to see what was left of the lodge, “the monument of my love and loss and longing.”
“They burnt a bit of my soul,” she wrote. “They knew how it would hurt.”
As the armed dudes set fire to the lodge, they repeatedly shot at her daughter, Sveva Gallmann, who lived nearby. “Our operations buildings and our house came under direct gunfire from armed fellows,” she said in a statement, Reuters reported. “My nine-month-old daughter was in the house with her carers and I was shot at three times as I ran inbetween the buildings to get to her.”
Speaking to the Fresh York Times this month, Gallmann said that in the past few days, herders had been nearing closer and closer to her home and were attacking her property in vengeance for the latest military activity against them.
This is not the very first time raiders have attempted to kill Gallmann. In 2009, she was driving alone across her property when herders surrounded her and hurled stones, hitting her in the head and arm, the Fresh York Times noted. She scarcely escaped. Despite the dangers, Gallmann told the newspaper: “There is absolutely no question that I want to stay in this place, die in this place, which could be any minute.”
Gallmann has called Kenya her home since she moved there in 1972, divorced and recovering from a crippling car accident. She found a fresh begin in Kenya with her 2nd spouse, Paolo, an adventure-loving Italian aristocrat. In 1980, when Paolo was driving home a cradle for his yet-to-be-born daughter, he was hit head on by a truck and killed instantly. Three years later, Gallmann’s 17-year-old son by her very first marriage, Emanuele, was killed by a poisonous bite from a puff adder.
When her book very first published, some claimed the white European’s story of love and loss in Africa gave off an air of colonialism. But others have praised Gallmann as a viable force in the field of conservation. The Kenyan citizen has waged a war against rampant poaching in an attempt to protect lions, leopards, elephants and other endangered wildlife in Laikipia. She has funded scholarships to help Kenyans use pharmaceutical technology and tribal medicine to halt deforestation and fight disease.
“Landowners? … I do not feel like a landowner,” she wrote in “I Dreamed of Africa.” “I cannot believe that we indeed own the land. It was there before us, and it will be there after we pass. I believe we can only take care of it, as well as possible, as trustees, for our lifetime. I was not even born here. It is for me a excellent privilege to be responsible for a chunk of Africa.”
In memory of her spouse and son, she created the Gallmann Memorial Foundation, which promotes “coexistence” inbetween humans and nature. “On the grave of both I swore to dedicate my life and my resources to making a difference for the chunk of Africa where we live, which they loved,” she said in an interview with Kenya Citizen TV. Both her spouse and son are buried on her ranch.
“There is nothing that people can do to scare or to make me heart,” she said.
