KWAW KESSE ON THE LOOSE (SHOWBIZ, PAGE 5)

“CRAZY” musician Kwaw Kesse does not play with his engagements the same way he doesn’t play with his money and perhaps there have been no better proof of this than the two incidents that occurred over the last couple of weeks in Wa and Accra.
In the first incident reported by Chris Nunoo, Kwaw Kesse virtually held the packed audience at the Wa Adonis Cinema hostage for close to one hour after the MC had announced him. The occasion was “The Face of Wa Poly” to climax the SRC week celebrations of the University of Development Studies.
After the long wait, Kesse finally appeared at about 2am ushered in by his personal body guards, the police and about three soldiers. By then the enthusiasm among most of the fans who were at the auditorium to be part of the much-hyped show, had died down.
This, notwithstanding, a few people who still wanted to reap some benefits from the amount they paid to watch the show gathered in front of the podium and managed to take pictures of Kwaw Kesse with their cell phones.
The Wa Polytechnic SRC executive condemned the attitude of the “King of the Streets”, calling it very unprofessional.
They said even though they agreed on a specific amount for Kwaw Kesse to honour the show, he disregarded the agreement at the eleventh hour and insisted that he be paid the remaining sum before performing.
According to the SRC sources, some interested parties among the audience and a few of the SRC executives had to prevail upon Kwaw Kesse for almost an hour before he obliged to enter the auditorium to perform.
Back in Accra, Mr Fennec Okyere, the manager of Kwaw Kesse, explained the misunderstanding to Showbiz . He said that Kwaw was invited by the SRC to perform at an agreed sum of GH¢3,000. The SRC paid GH¢ 2,100, representing 70 percent and according to the agreement, they were expected to pay the remaining GH¢ 900 when he got to Wa.
However, on their arrival, Okyere said they were not paid but they still went ahead to do all the things stipulated in the contract which included granting interviews to radio stations to publicise the event.
“On Saturday evening, we stayed in the hotel till midnight and our hosts did not come for us so on our own initiative, we went to the venue, the Adonis Cinema Theatre.
“When we got there, there were more than 3,000 people inside and outside who all wanted to see Abodam. Even though we had not been paid, the organisers said they wanted us to perform but we insisted on being paid.
“We were insistent because we have had this experience before in Tamale. Filla FM invited us for a programme but they did not pay us the balance and the next day we were left stranded because we had no money. Because we didn’t want a repeat of that, we insisted on being paid and after running around for a while, they were able to raise GH¢500 which was not enough to cover the amount which included GH¢ 600 for a bus we hired to Tamale.”
According to Fennec, a lot of people came in to try to resolve issues including some military men present. Eventually, Kwaw Kesse agreed to perform with the understanding that they (organisers) would bring the rest of the money to the hotel where Kwaw Kesse was staying early the next morning.
This they failed to do and according to Okyere, Kesse seized the motorbike of one of the SRC executives and brought it over to Accra until last Wednesday when payment was made and the bike was released.
Fennec said that even though the cost of the motorcycle was not up to the amount they were owed, they seized the motorbike because it was their way of having something that belonged to them and showing that they meant business.