Last Updated on January 23, 2020, 12:50 PM AST by Anthony Morris
St Kitts and Nevis have a higher crime rate compared to other Caribbean nations. In this month, back to back three firing incidents have taken place and raised major security concerns.
For a nation like SKN, where tourism is the bread-earner of the economy, such security breaches can directly affect the sector.
After the ‘Team Unity’ government took office in 2015, the administration under Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris started an initiative to lower the crime rate in the country by commencing an astonishing scheme of ‘paying the gangsters’ which is named as the ‘peace initiative’ .
The government is paying gangsters on a weekly basis by requesting them not to engage in such activities. This policy, however, was vehemently opposed by many in the country, as the gangsters are getting paid way better than people who deserve to be paid decent amounts of salaries on the basis of their qualification.
SKN News talked to several people in St Kitts and Nevis regarding recent firring and stabbing incidents where people seemed extremely unhappy about the rising criminal activities on the twin-island nation and blamed unemployment.
A resident named James,42, raised concerns over national security and police, ” St Kitts and Nevis is a happy nation, the government is not doing anything other than giving gangsters big amount of money, real actions are required.”
Another resident named Tamika who is retired teacher stated, “living on St Kitts and Nevis is getting scary day by day, unemployment is the major reason behind such rising criminal activities, streets are not safe, even your home is not safe any longer, what is Harris government doing other than paying gangsters hundreds of dollars?”
The interesting fact is that the government is running a ‘Peace Initiative’ with these gangsters and paying them a substantial amount of money to bribe them to stop criminal activities on the twin-island nation. Now, it is to bee seen in future that how much PM Timothy Harris and his government pays off to gangster for the recent shooting incident.
Such back to back attacking cases would affect the tourism of this twin-island nation, because of the security concerns of people who come to visit the country from across the globe.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
