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The entrance to St Mary’s Mission Hospital at Nairobi’s Langata estate. A Catholic priest, The Rev William Charles Fryda, embroiled in a court case over the ownership of multi-billion-shilling hospitals with John Cardinal Njue and a group of nuns has been suspended from priesthood. PHOTO/FILE
The entrance to St Mary’s Mission Hospital at Nairobi’s Langata estate. A Catholic priest, The Rev William Charles Fryda, embroiled in a court case over the ownership of multi-billion-shilling hospitals with John Cardinal Njue and a group of nuns has been suspended from priesthood. PHOTO/FILE  NATION
By MUCHEMI WACHIRA mwachira@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Thursday, May 16  2013 at  22:23
IN SUMMARY
  • The Rev William Charles Fryda had refused to drop the cases he has filed against the Cardinal and Sr Marie Therese Gacambi of the Assumption Sisters in their dispute over the ownership of St Mary’s Mission hospitals in Nairobi and Nakuru.
  • Cardinal Njue has also sought court orders to have the suit referred for arbitration but Fr Fryda accuses him of being partisan in the dispute. The Cardinal also wanted the media barred from covering the hearing of the dispute in courts, but his application was rejected by Mr Justice Hatari Waweru.
  • The dispute over the ownership of St Mary’s Mission hospitals started three years ago. The priest claims to own the hospitals built using donor funds. He says since he is a foreigner, he incorporated the Assumption Sisters as trustees for the purpose of registration of the land on which the hospitals meant to benefit the poor stand.
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A Catholic priest embroiled in a court case over the ownership of multi-billion-shilling hospitals with John Cardinal Njue and a group of nuns has been suspended from priesthood.
The Rev William Charles Fryda had refused to drop the cases he has filed against the Cardinal and Sr Marie Therese Gacambi of the Assumption Sisters in their dispute over the ownership of St Mary’s Mission hospitals in Nairobi and Nakuru.
The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers of New York, to who Fr Fryda is answerable, suspended him after he defied their order to drop the cases over the two hospitals in Nairobi and Nakuru.
The priest later filed a constitutional petition seeking orders to restrain Cardinal Njue, Maryknoll society and its regional superior in charge of Africa, the Rev Lance Nadeau, from interfering with his rights to refer the dispute to Kenyan courts.
Recently, he withdrew the constitutional petition and amended the suit he had earlier filed against Cardinal Njue and Sr Gacambi to include Maryknoll Society and Fr Nadeau. The suit will be heard on Monday.
In his supporting affidavit, Fr Fryda says Maryknoll had earlier declared that it would not take sides in the dispute but had recently set up a tribunal to formally charge him for disobeying his superiors.
Cardinal Njue has also sought court orders to have the suit referred for arbitration but Fr Fryda accuses him of being partisan in the dispute. The Cardinal also wanted the media barred from covering the hearing of the dispute in courts, but his application was rejected by Mr Justice Hatari Waweru.
The letter announcing the priest’s suspension, which has been circulated to all Catholic parishes in Nakuru, reads: “With the exception of the sacrament of penance in danger of death, Fr Fryda is prohibited from exercising any public priestly ministry or governance in the Church.”
The letter is signed by Maryknoll Society’s regional superior in the African region, Fr Nadeau. It is addressed to the Nakuru Catholic Bishop, the Rt Rev Maurice Muhatia.
“I delivered our Superior General’s Letter of suspension to Fr William C. Fryda in his residence at St Mary’s Hospital, Elementaita,” the letter dated May 1, 2013, says.
Fr Nadeau informs Bishop Muhatia that he has informed Cardinal Njue about the suspension.
The dispute over the ownership of St Mary’s Mission hospitals started three years ago. The priest claims to own the hospitals built using donor funds. He says since he is a foreigner, he incorporated the Assumption Sisters as trustees for the purpose of registration of the land on which the hospitals meant to benefit the poor stand.
The registration, according to him, was to be transferred later to a limited liability company called St Mary’s Mission Hospital.
He was in the process of putting up a third hospital in Sagana, Kirinyaga, when the sisters branded him a trespasser and asked him to move out of all the parcels he had bought.
He then moved to court and it later emerged that Cardinal Njue was a trustee of Pacis University College — a private institution the Sisters had registered using title deeds for the hospitals’ land.
Fr Fryda then started accusing the Cardinal and the Sisters of trying take over the property of St Mary’s Mission Hospital from him.

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