BY NT CORRESPONDENT.
Father William Charles Fyrda, an American missionary at the centre of St Mary’s Mission Hospital ownership row has been charged.
It is alleged that he committed fraud and forgeries.
It is alleged that he fraudulently changed the hospital bank account signatories at Prime bank in September, 2013.
The Catholic priest was also charged with uttering a false document where he allegedly changed the hospital’s signatories of the catholic run medical institution.
He denied the charges and was freed on a bond of Sh500, 000 or a cash bail of Sh200, 000.
Dr Fryda is accused of forging a letter for change of signatories of the hospital’s account domiciled at the Prime Bank ,Riverside branch purporting it to have been issued by the mission hospital.
He is also accused of fraudulently writing to the Bank’s manager Jane Chiffalu requesting for a change of signatories purporting it to be from St Mary’s, a fact he knew to be false.
Dr Fryda is a key player in the five-year ownership dispute pitting top catholic priests and a group of nuns over the control of the Sh3 billion St Mary’s Mission Hospital that serves thousands of poor patients in Nairobi and Elementaita.
The Assumption Sisters of Nairobi – who are trustees of the land on which the hospital sits – and an American priest, Father William Fryda, who founded the hospital in the 1950s are fighting for control of the facilty.
Also included in the tussle is a similar hospital in Nakuru County, which the court declared belongs to the nuns.
The battle for the control of the hospital turned ugly in December last year when a group of armed youth stormed the Langata brach administration block, reception, general ward and laboratory and told staff to leave, saying that new doctors had been brought in.
