Nairobi: Chaos In Karen As Catholic Nuns Fight Over School, Armed Goons Beat Up Staff

• Our Lady of Peace administrators accused Assumption Sisters of allegedly hiring goons to attack the school
• The chair of the school board, William Kinuthia, said the goons arrived with machetes and other weapons and beat up staff
• The school administration and the Assumption Sisters are embroiled in a dispute over the ownership of the shool

Amos Khaemba, a journalist at TUKO.co.ke, brings over three years of experience covering politics and current affairs in Kenya.

Nairobi - Assumption Sisters have been accused of hiring goons to attack staff at Our Lady of Peace School in Karen, Nairobi county.

On Saturday, January 6, several armed goons invaded the school and harassed staff aligned with the school administration.

Why Catholic Sisters are claiming the school

The school's administration accused the Assumption Sisters of being behind the sponsorship of goons who attacked staffers at the institution.

“They came as thugs with crowbars, machetes, and crude weapons, and started breaking the doors and offices, which is very sad. We go to church also but I feel like this should not happen in a Catholic church,” the chair of the school board, William Kinuthia, said, as reported by Citizen TV.

Our Lady of Peace lawyer, John Sakwa, dismissed the claims by Assumption Sisters over the property, insisting that the school belonged to the administration.

“This property belongs to the school. Anyone who seeks to claim it is absolutely wrong because there is clear documentation demonstrating who the proprietor of the school is," said Sakwa.

During the fracas, police were called in to contain the situation by repulsing the armed goons attacking the staff.

Battle over St Mary's Mission Hospital

Meanwhile, in September 2017, Justice Sila Munyao, then the Environment and Lands Court Judge in Nakuru, entered a judgment that ended a seven-year tussle over control of KSh 3 billion St Mary's Mission Hospital.

In the judgment, Munyao had ruled in favour of the sisters. Father Fryda and a group of staff allied to him were evicted from the facility, and a new management was set in place.

He also had to vacate his home in 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. Read more: