I first learnt of this informal name, kerosene, in reference to specific Jamaican women, on the popular YouTube channel called Politricks Watch. The analogy and concept of the entire phenomenon seems to make great sense, at least to me.

Women seem to be at the heart of some of the criminal and violent situations in Jamaica. A popular practice is for gang members to use these women (kerosenes) to entrap or lure unsuspecting men to specific locations, where they are ambushed, tortured, robbed, and killed.

This is the 21st century and therefore the barbaric behaviour portrayed by some women in our society is unacceptable and must not be tolerated. In fact, something drastic needs to be done to stamp out these horrific acts in which women have become involved, thereby contributing to the high murder rate in the country, which has caused Jamaica to be designated a murder capital.

On average, men are chastised for heinous acts, but the majority of the times women are the real conspirators. The women are the ones making the calls, planning the getaway, setting up the link, offering the opposing party a date, luring the victims, washing the bloody clothes, concealing the murder weapons, and coming out to protest the attacker’s innocence. This must be stopped.

I am therefore challenging the lawmakers of Jamaica to develop the necessary legislation to suitably punish these kerosene women as aiders, conspirators, abettors, and even masterminds. They are secretly destroying our land of wood and water as they are often overlooked or given a “bly” because they are women.

The Governor General Sir Patrick Allen, in his 2017/2018 throne speech in Gordon House (February 9, 2018), outlined that we should make “crime reduction a priority”. He further stated in his speech that, “We must focus on the great challenges that face us as a nation — the risks to our women and children, illicit actions by some of our citizens, and the need to deal with corruption and public inefficiency up front.” Great speech. His focus was on point, asking for the violent acts meted out to women and children to be minimised.

But fast-forward to 2021 and I have observed that some of the very women, on whose behalf many have been pleading for protection, are becoming serious violence producers. They are plotting high-end murders, aiding and abetting human trafficking, conspiring against their own family members, locking away and hiding guns, posing with high-powered weapons on social media, running gangs, and even committing murders.

Given that these nefarious acts are being carried out by women, either on their own or at the behest of their male partners and relatives, it seems the country must do more to empower our women to be more righteous, ethical, moral, upstanding, and patriotic Jamaica citizens.

Undoubtedly, women are very influential in our communities and they are most times the head of poverty-stricken households in Jamaica. I am not discrediting their inexorable efforts in providing for and supporting their families, making ends meet, hustling, working hard, holding the family unit together, and being very caring.

Nonetheless, there are bad weeds in every flourishing field. Some of these women are bad for Jamaica’s society. They are contributing to the lawlessness and indiscipline which have been overtaking the country.

Some exhibit poor parenting skills which contribute to human trafficking and abuse of their children. In fact, their poor choice in men oftentimes contribute to broken families and, by extension, the ills of society.

There is a school of thought which contends that these women are often needy, school dropouts, the partners of dons, mothers of gunmen, part of drug cartels, or inherited the trait from their parents’ lifestyle. These women are dangerous and toxic to a small developing state like Jamaica.

These characters are usually the backbone of volatile communities in Jamaica, but they have been popping up all over the country in recent years. They are the women who are “up in” the faces of police and army personnel when there is civil unrest in their communities; they are the loudest in declaring that “Fireshot” is not a badman or a don; they are the mothers who say their children are innocent, especially when they have been killed in police shoot-outs; they are the sisters or girlfriends doing interviews in which they proclaim their loved ones’ innocence; and they are the ones continuing the evil work when their loved ones are arrested, charged, and locked away in the penitentiaries.

In recent years, the Jamaican police have been arresting several women who are said to be “running off the ends”, giving criminal orders, locking guns, renting luxury apartments to hide criminals, conspiring to commit heinous crimes, setting up contract hits, and luring even police and soldiers to their deaths.

Human rights and gender rights groups often seek to protect women and their rights, which is all good. However, I want to see the same human rights and gender rights groups running public campaigns to educate society on the actions of women who are negatively influencing Jamaica’s society. Public education and community-based efforts must be employed to mitigate the actions of these women. The time is now. We need to nip this trending behaviour before it becomes more extensive and unmanageable.

All stakeholders must join in the efforts to educate, empower, and elevate Jamaican women to becoming the exceptionally valuable, motivated, authentic, ethical, loving, and family-oriented human beings they were created to be.

Government intervention is also needed to reduce the frequency of their involvement in criminal enterprise by enacting laws to charge, fine, and incarcerate women. There fines and prison sentences must be significant, otherwise they will be meaningless.

We must, at any expense, strive to reclaim our noble, law-abiding, God-fearing society from the hands of criminal elements — be it males or females.

karmac1980.km@gmail.com