Kofi Wayo

Kofi Wayo died in the early hours of Saturday 7 November 2026 in Accra, aged about 71. A death announcement circulated that day; GhanaWeb reported that he died at Nyaho Clinic, while The New Republic reported that he died at his home in East Legon, near Acheampong Junction. No cause of death was made public. At the time of the first reports his family had not announced funeral arrangements.

He should not be confused with Patrick Prince Ankrah, an NDC youth activist also known as Kofi Wayo or Kofi Wayo Central, who died in November 2025.

Kofi Wayo was born around 1955 at Kofi Pare in the Eastern Region of Ghana. His parents, Kwashie Akakpo, a cocoa farmer and soldier, and his wife Dede Aku, who came from Doryumu in the Greater Accra Region, could not read or write, so his exact date of birth was never recorded. He was the first of their ten children.

The family moved to Nima, a suburb of Accra. They were poor, and as a boy he worked as a hawker. He began primary school in the Eastern Region and continued at Myahyong Middle Mixed School in Accra. He later left Ghana to join Captain Charles Simons, a friend of his father living in Georgia in the United States, who adopted him. He attended Albany High School for four years.

Wayo settled in Detroit, Michigan, where he started out with odd jobs such as washing cars. He then began selling guns and grew the business until he was an arms dealer. In 1988 he sold his gun trading company and moved into the oil business.

After returning to Ghana he became a prominent critic of President Jerry Rawlings and the National Democratic Congress government, and a regular voice on radio and television. He joined the opposition New Patriotic Party and sought to contest the Ayawaso East parliamentary seat; he did not secure the seat, but campaigned for the party in the 2000 election that brought John Kufuor to power.

He quickly grew disillusioned with the NPP in government. In December 2003 he announced at a press conference in Accra that he was leaving for the People's National Convention, saying the NPP had failed to implement its manifesto and would not listen to ordinary Ghanaians. His time in the PNC was also brief. He went on to found the United Renaissance Party, registered in 2006, which he led as its presidential candidate, campaigning on unemployment, agriculture, industrialisation and corruption. The party never achieved significant electoral success.

In March 2017 he announced that he was leaving active politics to concentrate on farming and on helping rural farmers with implements and logistics, criticising both major parties for serving their own interests.

Wayo was married twice and had two daughters, both born in the United States. He was known for his blunt language, American accent and larger than life manner. In later years he lived in East Legon, Accra, and became increasingly secluded. In March 2026 a former associate, Ibrahim Zakaria, said that he and the broadcaster Blakk Rasta had been refused access to Wayo at his home and publicly raised concern about his health.

Although he never won office, Wayo was remembered as one of the most distinctive figures of Ghana's Fourth Republic: a critic of governments of both major parties, a founder of his own party and a persistent advocate for farmers and for accountability in public life. Ghanaian outlets described his death as the end of a colourful chapter in the country's politics.