Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah who is the majority speaker in Parliament has been able to keep his old identity from the public until now.
Many of us know him to be called Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu but little did we know that he actually had to change his name.
In a new revelation that has come up, it has been brought to light that the Member of Parliament for Suame was actually known as Lawrence Addae but had to change that to his current name after an incident in secondary school.
According to what we gathered, the politician was suspended in secondary school for stealing provisions and other things which were supposed to be used for the whole student body.
Information from the source went on to say that the incident brought shame to him until he decided to put the past behind him.
In leaving the past behind him, he decided to change his name as well after which he gained admission into the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to study designing.
On why he changed his name from Lawrence Addae to Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu in his latest interview, the politician stayed away from the event leading to that but disclosed that he had the inspiration from a Ga student way back in secondary school.
He explained that the name Lawrence Addae was given to him by his senior cousin and that has been the name he was using until he met with the Ga student in St. Peters who influenced his decision to revert to using his local name.
He said: “I was born ‘Osei Bonsu’. My father is Kwaku Kyei Mensah. But my father was born on an Awukudae so he used to be called Kwaku Addai. So growing up into elementary school, my senior cousin was the one who named me Lawrence Addae. It was the name I bear at class two or class three up to the secondary school level. Then we had a young man who came to my school, St Peters Secondary School…a Ga guy who was called Quarshie.
“He came to form a student movement for African Unity. I think we were impressed with the knowledge, the Africanness of the man, so, when I went there, I was inspired by Quashie and I had wanted to change my name from the Addae Lawrence that I bear to use my maiden name ‘Osei Bonsu’ and joining it up with my father’s name that is ‘Kyei Mensah’. So that’s how come I joined it up to become Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu. That is incorporating my father’s name ‘Kyei Mensah’ and my own ‘Osei Bonsu”
