JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

What was sup­posed to be a mo­ment of cel­e­bra­tion turned in­to mourn­ing and re­flec­tion last evening, as rel­a­tives, friends and neigh­bours of Aki­ni Kafi came out to re­mem­ber him with a march call­ing for an end to gun vi­o­lence.

Aki­ni, who would have cel­e­brat­ed his third birth­day yes­ter­day, was killed when the ve­hi­cle his fam­i­ly was trav­el­ling in was rid­dled with bul­lets in Bel­mont on May 7. Aki­ni was de­clared dead on ar­rival at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, af­ter he was tak­en there with his moth­er, An­to­nia Cain-Kafi, who was al­so shot in the ve­hi­cle they were trav­el­ling in along Up­per St Fran­cois Val­ley Road. Cain-Kafi was on her way to drop her child off at a day­care when the at­tack oc­curred. Her hus­band, Aquiyl Kafi and his friend, An­tho­ny Wil­son, were al­so killed in the shoot­ing.

Wil­son, who po­lice be­lieve was the tar­get, was buried on Wednes­day.

Cain-Kafi, who chose not to speak with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day and led the walk through Laven­tille, had planned a thanks­giv­ing cel­e­bra­tion for her child for Sat­ur­day. In­stead, she will be bury­ing her child and hus­band.

Those who came out wore dif­fer­ent shades of blue and with can­dles lit and singing hymns, walked from Lib­er­ty Bar, along the Old St Joseph Road, to Pash­ley Street, on to the East­ern Main Road to Er­i­ca Street and back on to Old St Joseph Road, end­ing where they be­gan.

Along the way, coun­cil­lor for the Suc­cess Laven­tille, Adan­na Grif­fith-Gor­don, led the group in a time of prayer at the cor­ner of Pash­ley Street and Old St Joseph Road. She cried that the coun­try was in a dark place with a need for di­vine in­ter­ven­tion, as “demons” are wag­ing war.

Her com­ments were echoed by en­ter­tain­er Or­lan­do Oc­tave, who said he joined the march to send a mes­sage that enough is enough and chil­dren should be pro­tect­ed, not have to be buried be­cause of gun vi­o­lence. He said he re­called a time when “boss­es” in com­mu­ni­ties looked out for chil­dren, but now it seems no one is look­ing out for them.

“We have been putting in work for years to get youths out of vi­o­lence and in­to pos­i­tiv­i­ty. I be­lieve this is my du­ty,” the leader of the non-gov­ern­ment or­gan­i­sa­tion Chil­dren of the Book said.

He added: “We don’t see pop­u­lar faces with these re­al is­sues and this is some­thing that I have a prob­lem with. This is not new, this has been go­ing on for years. When one child dies, when one life is lost, the whole na­tion is sup­posed to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. We sup­posed to take that per­son­al­ly. I think the hu­man­i­ty in mankind just dis­ap­pear.”

Or­gan­is­er for the vig­il, Niki­ta Wil­son, said as a moth­er, she was pained by the killing of not just Aki­ni but that of nine-year-old J’Lay­na Arm­strong, who was shot dead by gun­men on April 19 as she was in a ve­hi­cle with rel­a­tives and fam­i­ly friends, and the dis­ap­pear­ance of two-year-old An­ge­lo To­bias-Plaza, who was re­port­ed­ly stran­gled by a man close to his moth­er.

Wil­son said gang war­fare has ru­ined her com­mu­ni­ty and robbed it of op­por­tu­ni­ties and some­thing must be done to re­turn not just Laven­tille, but the coun­try to some peace.

“One moth­er cry is all moth­ers cry, so when I heard about the moth­ers cry­ing, I say ‘Come on, I is a moth­er too, let we see if we could get this to stop.’ And I just vex this is the way we have to take up for it to stop. Be­cause is chil­dren! Come on! How much more we go lose.”

She added that while there have been peace walk, vig­ils and oth­er march­es in the past, this one must not fall by the way­side.

“We need to put away the fear in our back­packs and come out with we heart be­cause it is our heart that is hurt­ing,” she said.

At the end of the vig­il, those gath­ered sang hap­py birth­day for Aki­ni, while the chil­dren who at­tend­ed were treat­ed with par­ty bags.