The brutal murders in Clarendon of 34-year-old Kemisha Wright and her four children, one of them 23 months old, have drawn reactions of shock and outrage from the country’s political directorate, as the Government continues to wrestle with the country’s unrelenting murder rate.

Speaking on the killings at Tuesday’s meeting of the House of Representatives, Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte called attention to the recently handed down Constitutional Court judgement in which St James taxi operator Roshaine Clarke was awarded close to $18 million for being unlawfully detained by the State under a state of emergency in the parish in January 2018.

“I note at paragraph 86 of the judgement the court indicating that the right to liberty is the most important right of every human being, and I’ve been reflecting on that, and as I think of this event where both sides of the aisle are united in the outcry, I really part company with that part of the judgement, because where I am coming from it’s the right to life that is the top tier right for me,” the minister stated.

She said some may frown on the reference, but argued that she was not speaking out against the judgement.

“It is important, because it is part of the reflection that is taking place at this time. My reference is meant to simply say, from where I am looking at it, the right to life is the top tier life and if we can’t enjoy that right, nothing else can be enjoyed. May we take a long, hard look at ourselves and may God give us what is required to deal with what is unleashing in this nation,” she said.

House Speaker Marisa Dalrymple Philibert declared that it was a dark day in the country’s history.

“We need as a country, from all walks of life, to stop and reflect and pray for all of us as citizens of this country. The murders have to stop. It is senseless, it is gruesome, it is evil, it is barbaric. As a mother, as a female, as a citizen, as a parliamentarian, I am just beside myself. I cannot begin to imagine the pain of family members who have lost children, ” she stated.

The bodies of Wright and her children were found at their home in Coco Piece, near the town of Chapelton in Clarendon on Tuesday.

National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang told colleague MPs that the murders have shaken the entire leadership of the country and had a certain level of savagery attached that was “hard to understand.

“There is a kind of violence at large in our country that affects all of us and we have to examine how we go forward to deal with this kind of savagery. The character of this kind of murder requires a united and total response by the State,” Dr Chang stated.

He said the country is seeing increasing levels of domestic violence, and pointed out that Clarendon, which had an extremely low number of murders in 2021, has experience a spike in homicides, close to 50 per cent of which are attributed to domestic violence.

“This kind of savagery is not about policing, it’s a far deeper psychosocial problem that we have to unite on as a country and begin to get at the root cause of this prevalence of violence,” Chang said.

Opposition Leader Mark Golding agreed that in order for the country to move forward, interventions must be found to tackle the issues, inclusive of strategies to take on the psychosocial challenges which haunt the society. He said the Opposition will support all measures to address the problems, as long as they are constitutionally sound.