Kelyan Bokassa, 14, was stabbed around 27 times in an attack on January 7 as he travelled on a the 472 bus in Woolwich, south-east London.
Two youths, aged 16, were both jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years and 10 months at the Old Bailey on Friday after they pleaded guilty to Kelyan’s murder and possession of a knife.
In a statement read on her behalf outside the court, Kelyan’s mother Marie Bokassa appealed to the Government for action on knife crime and youth violence, adding that authorities had “lost control of London”.
She said: “To the Government and authorities, how many mothers like me will it take?
“How many children must be buried before you act with urgency? Where are you? Where were you?
“I had no support from you when my son was alive and no support now that he is dead, a letter of condolence doesn’t mean anything to us.
“Our streets are bleeding, our cemeteries are full, our prisons are overflowing. Pain and loss is becoming normalised.
“Our streets are no longer safe for our children. Public transport is no longer safe. Schools are no longer safe.
“You have lost control of London.
“We need stronger laws, real cultural education, real boots to the ground.”
She added: “Knife crime is not just statistics to us. It’s caskets, it’s flowers, it’s funerals. Our children are being buried before their parents.
“I want change. I demand change. Let this not be another forgotten story. Let my child’s name be a turning point, a call to action to save other mothers from standing where I stand today.
“His name was Kelyan. My child deserved to live, deserved to feel safe walking on the streets of London. How many young people have been killed or injured since Kelyan?
“Let’s not wait for another one to die before we act.”
Ms Bokassa spoke on her sons killers saying: “They didn’t just take a life, they shattered an entire world.
“They broke a family, they buried a future, and they left me, a mother, dead inside with wounds no justice could ever heal.
“To the young people who carry knives, I beg you to stop before you raise a blade. Think of your own mother. Think of the mothers who will cry every night like I do, who will scream into her pillow, who will walk past her child’s empty room and collapse with grief.
“Don’t let a moment of anger still your future. Don’t let the streets raise you in a way your mother never would.
“There is no power in death. There is only loss.”
