Donor of 42 acre piece of land holding St Mary’s Mission Hospital wants it back

Businessman Joseph Ng’era during an interview at his office on January 8, 2018. [Photo: Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

A businessman who claimed he donated 42 acres to St Mary’s Mission Hospital in Elementaita, Gilgil, said he will go to court to seek a review of last year's ruling on the ownership of the facility.

The Environment and Land Court in Nakuru, in a case between American priest William Charles Fryda and the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi (ASN), ruled that the three parcels of land in Lang'ata, Sagana, and Elementaita be transferred to a limited liability company.

Joseph Ng’era, a businessman and farmer from Gilgil in Nakuru, claims he donated the Elementaita parcel as a way of giving back to the community.

Ng’era, in an interview with The Standard, maintained that he gave the land where the St Mary's Mission Hospital was constructed to offer affordable health services to the poor.

Health services

“This hospital is on my land. I gave it to Fryda. Before I had given it to Archbishop Raphael Ndingi Mwana a'Nzeki when he was at the diocese of Nakuru to have it developed but then the church was not ready,” said Ng’era.

In September last year, Justice Sila Munyao ruled that the disputed properties - LR No. 27228, LR No. 2 7229, LR No.9361/10, and Kiine/Rukanga/2846 - were not held in trust for Dr Fryda.

He further ruled that the four parcels which were in the name of Assumption Sisters of Nairobi as the registered trustees - be transferred to St Mary's Mission Hospitals, a company limited by guarantee.

The ruling opened the way for ASN to take over St Mary's Mission Hospital in Lang'ata and evict staff and patients as they sought to instal a new management.

Mission hospital

Ng’era said that in view of the escalating battle over the management of the mission hospital, he was planning to go back to court to seek a review of the judgement that gave the nuns power to take over the institution.

“I want the court to review the decision by the Environment and Lands Court. The land is not in the name of ASN. I want the land back so that I can give it to Fryda,” he said.

In his evidence before the Environment and Lands Court in Nakuru last year, Ng’era said that in the early 1980s, he had sought to donate land for a hospital as a way of giving back to the community.

He told the court after failed negotiations with a group of nuns from Italy, he met Fryda and agreed to donate 58 acres to set up the hospital.

He told the court he was later introduced to ASN, who were interested in setting up a university.

He testified that Fryda built a hospital on the land he had donated and his wishes as a donor were fulfilled.

However, Ng’era claimed he later learned of the differences between Fryda and ASN and unsuccessfully tried to reconcile them with the assistance of John Cardinal Njue and the Nuncio.

He told the court that his intention in donating the land was to have it operated by Fryda and not ASN, whom he thought were trained in education.

Ng’era said he wanted to claim back the land as the legal battle between Fryda and the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi moved to the Court of Appeal.

He was trained in meat science by Uplands bacon factory and worked with it from the 1960s to 1974.

Legal battle

In 1974, he took over one of the outlets owned by Uplands and started distributing bacon in parts of western Kenya and Uganda.

He owns several properties in Nyandarua and Nakuru.