Fred Kwasi Apaloo

Frederick Kwasi Apaloo was Chief Justice of Ghana from 1977 to 1986 and Chief Justice of Kenya from 1993 to 1995, and the only judge to sit on Ghana's Supreme Court under three republics. He was born at Woe near Keta on 9 January 1921 and died on 2 April 2000.

His father died when he was seven and an uncle, a trader in Kadjebi, paid for his schooling. He went to Accra Academy, read law at University College, Hull, and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1950. In practice he defended people charged after the Anloga riots against colonial taxes. He became a High Court judge in 1960 and in 1964 sat on the treason trial of Tawia Adamafio, Ako Adjei and others, whose acquittal led Nkrumah to purge the judiciary.

He joined the Court of Appeal in 1966 and the Supreme Court in 1971, and became Chief Justice in 1977. When the Limann government tried to make him face vetting for the post in 1979, the Supreme Court ruled that he had become Chief Justice of the Third Republic the moment its constitution came into force, and he survived a later attempt by the PNDC to remove him. He retired in 1986. Kenya made him Chief Justice in 1993, where he was known for opposing the death penalty. He also sat on the World Bank Administrative Tribunal. He married Georgina Kumasenu in 1953 and they had five children.