St Mary’s Hospital co-founder puts up new facility next door
By Roy Lumbe, October 7, 2019
The controversial co-founder of St Mary’s Mission Hospital William Fryda has opened a new medical facility, two years after he lost the ownership battle with the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi.
Fryda has established St Joseph’s Hospital next door to St Mary’s in Elementaita, Gilgil Nakuru county. The two hospitals are separated by a perimeter wall.
People Daily has learnt that Joseph Ng’era, a Nakuru businessman, is a co-owner of the new hospital.
Even as he sets up the new facility, Fryda has vowed to appeal the ruling which handed St Mary’s Hospital to Assumption Sisters. “We will move to the appeals court with the aim of having the judgement set aside,” he said.
Quality care
Fryda said the 28-bed hospital with 47 staff will strive to offer affordable healthcare to all Kenyans.
“The facility will dispel the notion that you cannot get quality healthcare in Kenya unless you are wealthy,” he said.
In December, there was a scuffle at St Mary’s Hospital, Lang’ata, Nairobi when the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi evicted its old management and staff, including Fryda, after winning the ownership dispute case.
On September 28, 2017, Environment and Land Court judge Munyao Sila allowed the sisters to seize the management from Fryda.
Fryda, an oncologist had moved to court in 2011 seeking orders to eject the nuns, who he accused of interfering with the hospital’s operations, from the facility.
At the new hospital, the administrator Seth Mandera, said the facility had started to attract patients.
He said owing to the fact that it is situated on the busy Nakuru-Nairobi highway, they are in a good position to handle emergency cases.
“We are ready to handle emergency cases. The facility is well equipped and, so far, we are doing well since we have sufficient staff,” he said.
The hospital wrangles came in the limelight nine years ago when Fryda accused the nuns of trying to forcibly take over the management of the hospital.
The two parties were locked in legal battles which ended with the nuns being declared the rightful owners of the two hospitals in Nairobi and Gilgil.
Fryda arrived in Kenya in 1991 after working as a missionary in Tanzania for many years. He left his New York home for Africa in 1980.