Over the past few days, Mrs. Gallmann, one of Kenya’s most famous conservationists and the author of the best-selling book “I Dreamed of Africa,” sent me a flurry of increasingly distressed text messages. Heavily armed pastoralists had invaded her ranch in northern Kenya and were edging closer and closer to her house.
“Pokot militia openly carrying firearms,” she wrote in one message. (The Pokot are an ethnic group in northern Kenya.) “Not just herders. Group of armed men without livestock. 13 firearm spotted.”
A few days later, she sent another message that said, “2 Arsons by herders and shooting reported.” She added in a separate bubble: “Fire ongoing.”
On Sunday morning, Mrs. Gallmann, 73, was driving across her vast ranch to visit a lodge that the raiders had just ransacked. That lodge was one of her most beloved spots, the favorite place of her son, who died years ago from a snakebite. She was being escorted by wildlife rangers.
As she drove back from the lodge in her car, with the wildlife rangers chugging along behind her, she saw a group of raiders on a hill, friends said. Several shots were fired. One bullet flew through her door. Mrs. Gallmann was hit in the hip, and the bullet sliced upward through her torso, leaving her gravely wounded.
Over the next few hours, wildlife rangers, a British Army field medic and doctors in Nairobi, the capital, raced to save her life. By Sunday evening, close friends said, she had emerged from surgery in stable condition but with extensive internal damage. The next few days could be critical, they said.
The attack on Mrs. Gallmann was the latest sign of the chaos and violence ripping through northern Kenya, an area celebrated for its wondrous wildlife but plagued by lawlessness. Thousands of armed pastoralists have swept in from other parts of the country that have been afflicted by drought.
The pastoralists say they need more land to graze their animals, and in recent years they have frequently harassed farmers and ranchers, hoping to push them out. The violence has been worsening and has reached new heights this year.
Last month, herdsmen shot and killed a British rancher in Laikipia, the same ruggedly beautiful area north of Nairobi where Mrs. Gallmann lives. More than a dozen people have been killed in the area, and property damage has run into the millions of dollars.
Gangs of young herders have been stirred by local politicians to invade other people’s land. Several politicians have recently been arrested. But given that official corruption is a crippling problem in Kenya, most analysts do not hold out much hope that any of the ringleaders will be seriously punished.
The Kenyan security services have deployed hundreds of officers to combat the problem, including some who are based on Mrs. Gallmann’s ranch, and recently a Humvee was parked in her front yard. Even so, herders occupy large parts of her land, making it dangerous to venture out. And the Kenyan government is increasingly distracted by national elections scheduled for August.
This past week, violence broke out across Kenya during primary balloting — a worrying sign for many Kenyans, who already dread elections because they often bring out the worst in the country, raising ethnic tensions and leading to bloodshed. Analysts say the violence between herders and landowners is worse in Laikipia this year because of the elections and because of the severe drought that has desiccated much of eastern Africa.
During several long conversations this month, Mrs. Gallmann spoke of her fears with a steely determination.
“There is absolutely no question that I want to stay in this place, die in this place, which could be any minute,” she said.
“My husband and myson are buried in my garden,” she said. “This may not mean much to an American, but it means a lot to Africans, and it means a lot to me.”
Mrs. Gallmann, who said she was a “pampered little girl” when growing up in Italy, has led both a blessed and a cursed life. Her wealth has allowed her to own one of the biggest and most beautiful ranches in Kenya, with about 100,000 acres of lush green land. But tragedy always seems to be lurking.
In her memoir, she recounts her son’s death, and the death of her husband in a car crash. Her book was turned into a feature film starring Kim Basinger.
After Mrs. Gallmann was shot on Sunday morning, wildlife rangers fired back at the raiders, who fled into the bush. The rangers rushed to Mrs. Gallmann, who was bleeding badly. She was taken by helicopter first to Nanyuki, a town south of Laikipia with a large British Army base, and a British field medic there stabilized her. Then she was flown to Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, one of the highest-regarded hospitals in East Africa.
Raiders have tried to kill Mrs. Gallmann before. One evening in 2009, she was driving alone across her property when herders surrounded her and hurled stones, hitting her in the head and hand. She barely escaped.
“It’s more dangerous now,” she said in a recent conversation. “More weapons, more young men without role models, without prospects, without an education, without a future.”
She seemed to sense, even before she was shot, that she was dealing with people who had nothing to lose. BY JEFFREY GENTLEMAN.
