Nuns tell court priest used police to kick them out of disputed facility
The entrance to St Mary’s Mission Hospital at Nairobi’s Langata estate. Catholic nuns in the ownership dispute of St Mary’s Mission Hospital insist they are the rightful owners of the multi-billion hospital along the busy Nakuru-Nairobi highway. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Sisters were kicked out from the disputed facilities in Elementaita in Nakuru and Lang'ata in Nairobi in 2011.
- Dr William Charles Fryda has sued John Cardinal Njue and Marie Theresa Gacambi for interfering with the running of St Mary’s Mission Hospital.
A Catholic priest used police to forcefully eject nuns from convents and offices at St Mary’s Mission Hospital outlets in Nakuru and Nairobi in a bitter ownership dispute pitting the two sides.
Sister Marie Theresa of the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi said Dr William Charles Fryda, a doctor who is laying claim to the hospital ordered police to flush out the nuns who lived and worked at the facilities located in Elementaita, Nakuru and Lang’ata, Nairobi.
On Friday, testifying in the case before the Nakuru High Court, Sister Theresa described the experience in 2011 as humiliating to the nuns who occupied the quarters and worked at the hospitals.
“Dr Fryda sacked all of us and ordered the police to send us out of the institutions in ten minutes. This was so dehumanizing and humiliating to the sisters who had dedicated all their lives in the institution serving the poor,” she said.
Dr William Charles Fryda, a Catholic priest has sued John Cardinal Njue and Marie Theresa Gacambi of the Assumption Sisters for interfering with the running of St Mary’s Mission Hospital.
In an emotional testimony before Justice Sila Munyao of the Lands and Environment Court, Sister Theresa claimed the police officers who ejected them on Dr Fryda’s orders manhandled them as the priest hurled insults.
The court heard that the nuns were sent packing in 2011 after they turned down several proposals from Dr Fryda in attempts to have them transfer the land documents registered under their name to a new authority.
In a document presented before the court, Dr Fryda had proposed to the Catholic Church to facilitate transfer of the title deeds of the land registered under Assumption Sisters of Nairobi trustees to a new management authority that would see the establishment of the proposed Regina Parties College.
According to the nun, Dr Fryda was to assist in sourcing donors who were to join the sisters and the St Mary’s Mission Hospital fraternity in funding the university project.
Sister Theresa said that the Catholic Church, led by their head John Cardinal Njue, tried to plead with Dr Fryda to surrender three title deeds registered under their name that he had kept since 1999.
“We wanted him to surrender the documents to the church leadership because he was not supposed to keep them as personal properties,” she said.
The court heard that the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi contributed a sum of Sh5.6 million from their personal savings to the projects, refuting earlier claims by Dr Fryda that he single-handedly funded the project.
Dr Fryda, however, through his team of lawyers objected the use of the documents tabled before court on grounds that some were not signed and also did not understand where they had come from.
Justice Munyao adjourned the matter to September 6 and 7 to make a ruling on their admissibility.
In the civil case filed in 2012, Dr Fryda of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers Society in the United States who is the founder and chief executive officer of the institutions, accused the two of trying to kick him out with an aim of taking over the property.
He had earlier filed an injunction seeking to compel the court to restrain the sisters from blocking his operations at the hospital.
(Editing by Joel Muinde)
