NAIROBI (REUTERS) – Gunmen wounded Italian-born conservationist Kuki Gallmann at her conservation park on Sunday in the latest of a string of attacks during land invasions in drought-stricken northern Kenya.

The 73-year-old author of the memoir I Dreamed Of Africa was shot in the stomach after the vehicle she was driving in was ambushed by a group of gunmen, a family friend said.

Gallmann, who was played by Kim Basinger in the 2000 film of the book, was going to inspect fresh damage to her property after invaders burned down a retreat there on Saturday. A luxury hotel there had already been burnt down last month.

She was ambushed when she was forced to stop by a tree laid across the track, the friend said. The gunmen shot her, but Gallmann was saved when rangers from the Kenya Wildlife Service intervened and fought off the attackers.

Gallmann was first flown to a hospital in the nearby town of Nanyuki to be stabilised. British military medics accompanied her on another helicopter to receive surgery at a hospital in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, the friend said.

Her daughter – who herself was shot at in an incident in March – said that her mother was able to speak, the friend said.

The Gallmann family own the 100,000-acre (400 sq km) Laikipia Nature Conservancy and employ 250 Kenyans on the luxury lodges, ranch, and other businesses on the land.

They also run the Gallmann Africa Conservancy and Gallmann Memorial Foundation, conservation groups focusing on bringing people and wildlife together sustainably.

A wave of violence has hit Kenya’s drought-stricken Laikipia region in recent months as armed cattle-herders searching for scarce grazing land have driven tens of thousands of cattle onto private farms and ranches from poor quality communal land.