Con­stituen­cy co-or­di­na­tor for Diego Mar­tin West for the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), Mar­sha Walk­er, be­lieves that the Gov­ern­ment is not do­ing enough to de­fend women and chil­dren from abuse.

“The con­stituen­cy of Ari­ma is home and has now be­come a dump­ing ground for women. This is the Aripo area, where sev­er­al bod­ies have shown up. It’s an im­por­tant con­stituen­cy for us to march in and say enough is enough. The Gov­ern­ment is not do­ing enough as the Pep­per Spray Leg­is­la­tion is still not here. Where are the CCTV cam­eras? Where is the po­lice post we asked for in that area? It’s re­al­ly not good enough,” she told the me­dia yes­ter­day as they be­gan their march. The UNC Na­tion­al Women’s Arm in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Ari­ma and D’Abadie/O’Meara con­stituen­cy Ex­ec­u­tives marched from Herde’s Park, Mt Pleas­ant to the Ari­ma Mar­ket yes­ter­day in a march themed “Pro­tect Our Women and Chil­dren.”

Over 30 UNC mem­bers were in­volved in the march, with a few cars in­volved in the pro­ces­sion. They braved the pour­ing rain in Ari­ma dur­ing the 30-minute walk.

Walk­er al­so called on the Gov­ern­ment to act on the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Ju­dith Jones Task Force re­port in­to abus­es at chil­dren’s homes.

“No one is speak­ing about it or in­ter­view­ing Ju­dith Jones her­self. Where is the out­rage? There are over 80 abusers ac­cord­ing to the rec­om­men­da­tions of the re­port. They need to be im­me­di­ate­ly re­moved from those homes. Those abusers are still there liv­ing among the chil­dren. If no one else will do it, the UNC will do it.”

She al­so promised that the UNC will keep pres­sur­ing the Gov­ern­ment to safe­guard the in­ter­ests of women and chil­dren.

“We have not stopped march­ing since Oc­to­ber, and we will con­tin­ue.”

She al­so com­ment­ed on the UNC in­ter­nal elec­tions which will take place on June 26  and as­sured the coun­try that the UNC base sup­ports the UNC’s leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

“Elec­tions are al­ways a good sign that democ­ra­cy is thriv­ing. I find it fun­ny when peo­ple say that Kam­la should give up the lead­er­ship. First of all, it’s not hers to give up. As mem­bers, we choose who we want to be po­lit­i­cal leader. For peo­ple who want to be in­volved in who will be our po­lit­i­cal leader, join the UNC and vote. Come up with your slate and con­test the post. We are very hap­py with the lead­er­ship of the par­ty.”

In ear­ly May, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said the task force ap­point­ed to im­ple­ment rec­om­men­da­tions fol­low­ing the Jus­tice Ju­dith Jones re­port in­to chil­dren’s homes had been giv­en six weeks to sub­mit a work plan. Speak­ing at the post-Cab­i­net news con­fer­ence, Row­ley said the task force com­menced its work on May 5, 2022, when the in­au­gur­al meet­ing of the team was held.