Father Fryda: The story of St Mary’s Hospital founder who lost the facility to nuns

A seven year legal dispute over ownership of the KSh 3 billion St Mary’s Mission Hospital was resolved in September 2017 by a judgment issued by Justice Sila Munyao, who was then the Environment and Lands Court Judge in Nakuru.

Father William Charles Fryda, an American priest, and the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi engaged in a protracted legal battle over the possession of property in Gilgil, Nakuru, and Lang’ata.

Munyao had decided in the sisters’ favor in the verdict.

A new management team was installed after Father Fryda and a group of staff members who supported him were removed from the facility.

Additionally, he had to leave his residence inside the hospital in Gilgil.

Fryda, an American citizen whose father was a cowboy and mother a teacher, arrived in Kenya in 1991 with the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.

It is here that the vicious battle for control of two hospitals was designed and was fought, putting him at loggerheads with the Catholic Church.

For months after the takeover of St Mary’s by the nuns, Fryda struggled and had to look for means to survive.

He filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal and sought temporary injunction orders barring the take-over efforts which did not bear fruits.

Even as he awaits the outcome of the appeal, the priest seems to have picked up the crumbled pieces to set up another hospital just next to St Mary’s Mission Hospital.

Deciding not to take the competition far from the nuns, he named the facility St. Joseph Mission Hospital.

Ex-founder of St Mary’s Mission Hospital opens new facility after losing court battle to Kenyan nuns

The new facility established in October 2019 is a replica of St Mary’s Mission Hospital and the beehive of activities going on there is what keeps Fryda going.

He is happy now that even after the loss he finally got a place to call home.

Dressed in a dust coat with a stethoscope slung around him, he moves from ward to ward while stopping to speak to some of his staffs.

He also engages his patients in Swahili.

Speaking to the media, he said even after the loss of the hospital to the nuns, his dream of having a facility that served the less fortunate continued to live on.

Immediately, he had to think of how he would continue serving the people.

“The dream to provide service to the poor never died, the skills remained with me even after the loss. Just had to figure out how to start a new facility,” said Fryda.

The priest converted a three-storey building that was once St Mary’s nursing school into a hospital and then acquired hospital equipment.

Fryda said a group of friends from Kenya and Europe provided him with funds after learning of his woes.

He also said someone had donated him a parcel of land in Njoro to establish another facility.

Like-minded medical professionals who worked with him at St Mary’s moved to work with him at the new facility.

St. Joseph’s Mission Hospital has a 70 bed capacity inpatient ward, an operating theatre and an x-ray room and although it is still new, serves hundreds of patients.

The services are up to standard and cost-friendly with minor Surgery going at KSh 5, 000 while a major surgery goes at KSh 10, 000.

Those admitted at the hospital pay KSh 500 bed fee, a C-Section Delivery cost KSh 7, 500, and delivery costs one KSh 4, 000.

Records shows that more than 110 outpatients are being attended to since it opened its doors to the public.

On average the facility handles 40 inpatients daily.

Asked how he relates with Njue after the court battle, Fryda says he has no beef with him.