John Cardinal Njue the head of the Catholic Church in Kenya, has lost a five-year court battle against a priest who claims ownership of two St Mary’s Mission Hospitals.
The hospitals that were founded by Fr Dr William Charles Fryda, who was almost facing deportation to America for resisting their takeover by the Catholic Church, are conservatively valued at Sh3 billion.
In his ruling on the case last week, Justice David Onyancha said Cardinal Njue had not shown satisfactory cause to strike out Fr Fryda’s suit over the ownership of the hospitals in Lang’ata, Nairobi and Elementaita in Nakuru.
Justice Onyancha ruled that the suit by Cardinal Njue and the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi under Marie Theresa Gathambi against Fr Fryda “consist of mere denials without giving reasons why Dr Fryda is not the original and current owner or the director of the hospitals” and that their objections lacked issues that could stand trial and “dwelling on their pleadings will be a waste of the court’s time.”
“Dr Fryda has made specific and detailed claims against the two and supported each with documents.
The defendants have only denied the claim without indicating their line of defence which does not challenge the hospitals’ ownership,” Justice Onyancha ruled.
The dispute started when the Assumption Sisters lost their case to stop Dr Fryda from running the hospitals.
Dr Fryda sued Cardinal Njue for allegedly forcing him to hand over the hospitals to the nuns, claims the cardinal denied. “All I was doing was to create reconciliation but I was misunderstood,” he told The Nairobian on phone last week.
