Image copyright AFP Image caption A luxury safari lodge owned by Ms Gallmann was burned down last month 
 
 Renowned Italian-born conservationist Kuki Gallmann has been shot and injured in an ambush at her conservation park in central Kenya. 
 
 The author of the best-selling memoir I Dreamed of Africa was airlifted to hospital for treatment. 
 
 Ms Gallmann, 73, owns the Laikipia Nature Conservancy. 
 
 She also ran a luxury safari lodge that was burned down last month by suspected cattle herders, who have been in conflict with landowners. 
 
 Herders have been invading private property in search of fresh grazing in the drought-stricken Laikipia region. 
 
 British rancher Tristan Voorspuy, who also ran a safari company, was shot dead in early March while inspecting his lodges in Laikipia. 
 
 Are Kenya ranch invasions driven by drought or politics? 
 
 There is no confirmation of who carried out the attack on Ms Gallmann, who was reportedly shot in the stomach. 
 
 She was flown by helicopter to hospital in Nairobi to undergo treatment. 
 
 Image copyright The Star, Kenya Image caption The attack in March left Mukutan Retreat in ruins 
 
 Ms Gallmann owns about 360 sq km in Laikipia, which is home to rare wildlife, birds and trees. Her organisation also runs community, education, arts and sports projects. 
 
 She moved to Kenya in 1972 with her husband and son who both later died in separate accidents. She later became a Kenyan citizen. 
 
 I Dreamed of Africa was turned into a film starring Kim Basinger. 
 
 The arson attack on Ms Gallmann's Mukutan Retreat last month left it in ruins. There were no visitors staying at the time. 
 
 Police believed that attack may have been in retaliation for a police operation that killed 100 cattle in the conservancy. 
 
 The herders accused police of trying to force them off the land by shooting their livestock. Police say the livestock were killed in crossfire with the herders, who were using the animals as shields. 
 
 Laikipia, which covers about 10,000 sq km in Kenya's central highlands, is where some of the country's largest white landowners are based. 
 
 Insecurity has risen sharply in recent months as the drought has led armed herders to seek out new pasture, pitting them against big landowners and smallholders. 
 
 Tens of thousands of cattle are thought to have been driven on to private land and at least a dozen people have been killed. 
 
 The BBC's Alastair Leithead tried to approach herders last month to ask about their grievances, but was forced to retreat when they shot at him. ||||| In this image from a video footage taken on May 3, 2000 in New York, the Italian-born author and conservationist Kuki Gallmann speaks during an interview. Gallmann was shot at her Kenyan ranch and airlifted... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this image from a video footage taken on May 3, 2000 in New York, the Italian-born author and conservationist Kuki Gallmann speaks during an interview. Gallmann was shot at her Kenyan ranch and airlifted for treatment after herders invaded in search of pasture to save their animals from drought,... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this image from a video footage taken on May 3, 2000 in New York, the Italian-born author and conservationist Kuki Gallmann speaks during an interview. Gallmann was shot at her Kenyan ranch and airlifted for treatment after herders invaded in search of pasture to save their animals from drought,... (Associated Press) In this image from a video footage taken on May 3, 2000 in New York, the Italian-born author and conservationist Kuki Gallmann speaks during an interview. Gallmann was shot at her Kenyan ranch and airlifted... (Associated Press) 
 
 NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The Italian-born author and conservationist Kuki Gallmann was shot at her Kenyan ranch and airlifted for treatment after herders invaded in search of pasture to save their animals from drought, officials said Sunday. 
 
 Gallmann, known for her bestselling book "I Dreamed of Africa," which became a movie by the same name starring Kim Basinger, was patrolling the ranch in Laikipia when she was shot in the stomach, local police chief Ezekiel Chepkowny said. 
 
 The 73-year-old Gallmann had been with rangers from the Kenya Wildlife Service, assessing damage done to her property Saturday by arsonists who burned down buildings at one of Laikipia Nature Conservancy's tourism lodges, said Laikipia Farmers Association chairman Martin Evans. 
 
 After the attack, the rangers transported her to a location where she could be airlifted to Nanyuki town, Evans said. British Army medics attended to her before she was airlifted to the capital, Nairobi, he said. 
 
 On Sunday night, Evans said Gallmann was in stable condition after surgery but had serious injuries. He cited a family member. 
 
 Richard Constant, the association's deputy chairman, said suspicion falls on herders from the Pokot community who have invaded Gallmann's ranch several times. Lodges belonging to Gallmann were burned by the herders last month. 
 
 This East African nation is facing a drought that has affected half the country and has been declared a national disaster. 
 
 Herders, whose livelihoods depend on their cattle, and large-scale farmers in parts of Kenya's Rift Valley have been desperately waiting for seasonal rains that were to start last month to ease the drought and conflicts over grazing land in which more than 30 people have died. 
 
 Kenya's military and police have been working to disarm and drive the hundreds of herders and their animals out of ranches they've invaded, but their actions appear to have escalated the violence. When the military and police drive herders from one ranch they move into another, the farmers' association said. 
 
 The association has accused politicians campaigning for the August elections of inciting the herders to invade the ranches, saying the owners' leases have come to an end and that herders can take over the land and distribute it among themselves. 
 
 "The LFA is conscious that a small handful of inciters are driving this violence and that they have deployed militias to cause mayhem in parts of Laikipia. For months these criminals have been rampaging around with their illegal weapons, destroying lives and livelihood," Evans said. 
 
 The land invasions started late last year. British national and ranch owner Tristan Voorspuy was killed last month when he went to inspect damage done by the herders on one of his lodges. 
 
 Opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga said ranch owners deserve protection under the law like all Kenyans. 
 
 "Unfortunately, we have watched in bewilderment as hooligans take advantage of the drought to subject these ranchers to unwarranted attacks," Odinga said. "Even more depressing is the apparent helplessness of the government that is clearly unable or unwilling to bring these attacks to a stop." 
 
 Many of the ranches, some of which double as wildlife conservancies, were acquired during the period of British colonial rule, some as early as 1900, according to a government report. Others were purchased after Kenya became independent in 1963. 
 
 Many of the farmers' association's members are in the tourism business, Evans said. 
 
 "Though times are very tough for those properties affected by the invasions, the extent of the troubles are restricted to parts of north and west Laikipia," he said. "These events do not affect other parts of Kenya which remain safe to visit." ||||| 'I Dreamed Of Africa' Author And Conservationist, Shot In Kenya 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Kuki Gallmann, a conservationist best known for her book I Dreamed of Africa, was ambushed and shot while she drove across her conservancy in Kenya Sunday morning. 
 
 Gallmann, 73, was shot in the stomach and "severely injured" while surveying her property with rangers of the Kenya Wildlife Service, according to her brother-in-law Nigel Adams and a press release from a farmers' association of which she's a member. 
 
 She was flown to a hospital in Nairobi for treatment, and was still conscious and speaking after the attack, according to The New York Times. 
 
 Her conservancy, the Laikipia Nature Conservancy, has been the center of a bloody battle for weeks, as a large-scale drought has pushed cattle-herders to extreme measures to try and find grazing land. 
 
 NPR's Eyder Peralta spoke on All Things Considered earlier this month about the issue, after the owner of another ranch was shot and killed. 
 
 "You have nomadic herders who are moving into private wildlife conservancies with thousands of heads of cattle," Peralta said. "And in response, the Kenyan government launched a military-style operation to push the herders out. But what we've seen is an escalation of violence. Police have killed lots of cows. And the herders have responded by burning tourist lodges on the properties." 
 
 In fact, Gallmann was said to be surveying arson damage inflicted on her property, when she was attacked. 
 
 Members of the Pokot and Samburu tribes have long grazed on conservancy land in Kenya, but over the past few years things have changed. Herders have brought more and more cows, killed other wildlife, and begun to vandalize property. Gallmann's daughter, Sveva Gallmann, told NPR last month that the escalation concerned her. 
 
 "That's not just grass," she said. "That is heavily politicized violence. And that is what's much more worrying about this situation." 
 
 She added that she doesn't think the herders even own many of the cows. 
 
 "There's a lot of, actually, politicians, people within the police, people within the administration storing their wealth in cattle and laundering ill-gotten money through cattle," she said. 
 
 Government officials deny those claims. 
 
 Kenya has a national election coming up in August, and local land owners also blame politicians for inciting herders to push their cattle onto privately-owned land as a way of boosting their popularity, reports the United Kingdom's The Telegraph. 
 
 In an interview with NPR Sunday, Martin Evans, the chair of the Laikipia Farmers' Association, agreed that the battle between the herders and the Kenya Defense forces is politically motivated. 
 
 "It started a year ago," Evans said. "At the time it started, there was plenty of rain, it was nothing to do with lack of grass at that time so yes, I think it's definitely being pushed by politicians." 
 
 Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's office issued a statement warning politicians in the area not to inflame the situation with "reckless rhetoric." 
 
 "Politicians encouraging invasions of privately-owned property or attacks on individuals can expect strong deterrent action in terms of the law," Kenyatta's spokesman, Manoah Esipisu, said. 
 
 In the last month, the violence seemed to be escalating on the Gallmann ranch. Herders burned down a famous resort on her property, and she exchanged text messages last week with The New York Times that showed her concern. 
 
 "Pokot militia openly carrying firearms," Gallmann wrote on April 15. "Not just herders. Group of armed men without livestock. 13 firearm spotted." 
 
 Gallmann was born in Italy, and published her memoir I Dreamed of Africa in 1991. It was turned into a movie starring Kim Basinger in 2000. 
 
 NPR's Eyder Peralta contributed to this report.
– The Italian-born author and conservationist Kuki Gallmann was shot at her Kenyan ranch and airlifted for treatment after herders invaded in search of pasture to save their animals from drought, officials said Sunday. Gallmann, known for her bestselling book I Dreamed of Africa, which became a movie by the same name starring Kim Basinger, was patrolling the ranch in Laikipia when she was shot in the stomach, says a local police chief. The 73-year-old Gallmann had been with rangers assessing damage done to her property; lodges belonging to Gallmann were burned by the herders last month. She was airlifted to the capital, Nairobi; a family member reportedly said Gallmann is in stable condition after surgery but had serious injuries. The AP reports the East African nation is facing a drought that has affected half the country and has been declared a national disaster. The BBC reports it's believed tens of thousands of cattle have been pushed onto private lands; Laikipia's roughly 4,000 square miles are home to some of Kenya's biggest white landowners. NPR's Eyder Peralta described the situation like so: As nomadic herders have moved in, "the Kenyan government launched a military-style operation to push the herders out. But what we've seen is an escalation of violence. Police have killed lots of cows. And the herders have responded by burning tourist lodges on the properties."