To­day, May 23rd, 2022, marks the 24th an­niver­sary of the bru­tal mur­der of 11-year-old Akiel Cham­bers, who met his demise while in­no­cent­ly at­tend­ing the birth­day par­ty of one of his class­mates. Lit­tle did his fam­i­ly know that day would have been the last they would see him alive and that 24 years lat­er, they would still be search­ing for jus­tice in his killing.

Se­nior Coun­sel Mar­tin Daly has been one of the lone voic­es con­tin­u­ous­ly re­mind­ing this coun­try that there is a need to bring the per­pe­tra­tors of this heinous crime to jus­tice.

Yes­ter­day Mr Daly wrote: "The lack of jus­tice for Akiel still vivid­ly rep­re­sents the dys­func­tion of a dis­gust­ing so­ci­ety which re­lent­less­ly per­mits per­sons of a bet­ter sta­tion in life, or the right con­tacts, to prey on oth­ers who may be less for­tu­nate. I still think about Akiel be­cause every­where there are ex­pres­sions of that dys­func­tion, which per­mits mon­ey, skin shade, class and con­tact to de­ter­mine out­comes in every­day life."

No right-think­ing per­son can ar­gue with the po­si­tion adopt­ed by Mr Daly, es­pe­cial­ly in light of the damn­ing 1997 Robert Sab­ga and 2021 Ju­dith Jones re­ports which paint a dark pic­ture of the cru­el­ty met­ed out to chil­dren in homes which ben­e­fit from State sub­ven­tions.

It is clear from the lack of jus­tice for Akiel and the cru­el­ty to chil­dren in state-fund­ed homes that there lacks the po­lit­i­cal will in this coun­try to deal with such crimes against chil­dren. If there was, would we be at a point where Akiel’s fam­i­ly has seen no jus­tice while the many cas­es at chil­dren’s homes have gone un­ad­dressed?

Those politi­cians who gov­erned this coun­try in the 25-year pe­ri­od since the Sab­ga re­port and Akiel’s death should hang their heads in col­lec­tive shame, as none of them can say they care or that they did all they could to pro­tect the na­tion's chil­dren.

It is true that af­ter the Sab­ga re­port some head­way was made with the es­tab­lish­ment of the Chil­dren's Au­thor­i­ty, but the fact that Jus­tice Jones could still re­port 25 the abuse con­tin­ues at some homes is an in­dict­ment on suc­ces­sive gov­ern­ments.

Min­is­ter Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy, who has the task of pro­tect­ing our chil­dren as Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Gen­der and Child Af­fairs, should not just be "heart­bro­ken," but ashamed at her in­abil­i­ty to make things right in the sev­en years she has held the po­si­tion.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are one thing but if they bring no ben­e­fit to those who need it most, then what is their pur­pose? Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Mc Don­ald Ja­cob's po­si­tion in yes­ter­day’s Sun­day Guardian that the coun­try should not ex­pect overnight re­sults in the in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the 1997 and 2021 re­ports is al­ready shame­ful and noth­ing more than a cop-out be­fore get­ting in­to the crux of the mat­ter.

For Akiel's fam­i­ly and the chil­dren abused in homes for decades, they are still hop­ing that what they en­dured nev­er hap­pens to an­oth­er child and we must en­sure this is the out­come of the cur­rent dri­ve. These tragedies must be a les­son for all of T&T. We must nev­er for­get, nor must we al­low this to con­tin­ue.