The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

IN a tearful address, Senator Lisa Bostwick-Dean said if Bahamians are reliant on the government to raise and discipline their children, then they would have failed as parents.

While on her feet in the Senate yesterday, Mrs Bostwick-Dean became emotional as she sympathised with the mother of 10-year-old Kenron Dean who was shot dead while at his home on Finlayson Street last Thursday night.

Police reports say that shortly after 9 o’clock that evening, they were called to the scene of the shooting in Bain Town and discovered four people shot. Young Kenron, who according to a relative was looking forward to having fun at a promised movie night, was pronounced dead on the scene. His twin brother, young cousin and uncle were also injured during the incident.

“This is the first time we sat since the killing of yet another child in The Bahamas,” Mrs Bostwick-Dean said. “I am actually glad that there was a moment to catch oneself before speaking to that. But I had intended on Friday morning to speak to that matter.

“To the family of that young boy and sadly to the family of the other families that have suffered the loss of children to gun violence in our Bahamas, it is just inconceivable. We are killing our children by shooting them dead. And children while they are with their families. There is something just incomprehensible and horrific about where we are.”

Mrs Bostwick-Dean, daughter of former Free National Movement politicians Janet and Henry Bostwick, said if the country continues on in this manner, where “children are killing children”, then it would surely have a disastrous future for its citizens.

The FNM senator said Bahamians cannot rely on the government to do everything and should begin managing their homes.

“The road we are on is for disaster for each and every one of us,” she said. “I don’t know the answers, but we must find a way … the justice department. But by the time we get to the justice department we have lost. By the time the police become involved we have lost. Education, Social Services, Ministry of Youth … that’s where the government focus needs to be, but these problems are not governmental problems.

“When we have to look to our government to discipline and to raise our children so that they don’t kill our children, then we as parents have failed. We need to stop saying ‘government, government, government’. We must begin to manage our own homes. When I say I cry for you mothers, I do. But, if we can commit to each other, we can do this, Bahamas. We must stop killing our children.”

She said the issue of crime, especially against children, should not be seen as a political thing, but rather a problem in our communities.

“Bahamas I am a mother. I implore us to stop. We have to find answers. This is not FNM, this is not PLP, this is not DNA. This is not any other independent party out there. These are our children and our children are killing our children. We must stop,” she said tearfully.

“I apologise for becoming emotional, but some things are not politics. It is exhausting to be on the frontline and to have politics enter into everything rather than true concern about nation building and the welfare of our people. It is absolutely exhausting and it is sometimes disgusting. It is disheartening.

“We must come together as a people. We must reach across the gender divide. We must reach across the political divide. We must put aside our petty indifference and do what is necessary to serve and save our nation.”

Police have said they suspect the shooting was gang-related and that an older relative of Kenron was the intended target.