Kwaw Kese: I Want $1M Compensation From Ghana Police For Arresting Me For Smoking Wee In 2015

Ghanaian rapper, Kwaw Kese has disclosed that he is considering taking legal action against the Ghana Police with $1M damages for his arrest and subsequent conviction for smoking marijuana.

In his view, his arrest for publicly smoking marijuana was discriminatory considering that many foreigners had gone scot free when they flouted the laws.

Speaking on Hitz FM recently, Kwaw Kese said he will communicate with his lawyers to take appropriate legal action.

“Even with mine, they don't have any proof that I was doing that. There's no shot that they could show that to say ‘we saw Kwaw Kese doing this’. It's a hearsay and I was jailed for it. They don't have any picture to prove it.

“This is the same Ghana, the same police that arrested me are now bodyguarding with guns, guarding somebody who is not a Ghanaian to smoke in public and it is live on video and everything and that person goes scot-free,” he claimed.

Kwaw Kese also noted that the incident negatively affected his image and blossoming career at the time.

“I have proof, I have evidence that shows that other foreign nationals have come to do the same thing I was jailed for. If this is how it is, then I have to be compensated for the disgrace and what they did to me and my name,” Kwaw Kese added.

Kwaw Kese was tried for narcotic offences and was sentenced to a day’s imprisonment and a fine of GHȼ1,200 in 2015. (Read Universal Music buys majority stake in Don Jazzy’s Mavin)

Five years down the line, Jamaican musician Popcaan was seen smoking what was suspected to be marijuana publicly in Ghana when he came down for the Year of Return in 2020.

Outraged that the Jamaican musician was left off the hook, Kwaw Kese called out Ghana Police at the time.

He wrote, “Only in Ghana foreigners can f**k up like this. When @kwawkese smoked in public he was arrested. So this means our Law set only to control on the citizens but foreigners are free to go.

“The most painful part is Ghana police. None of them was able to speak the truth out because of the small coins which will be given out … Ooh Ghana”.