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Over the past few weeks, national security units have shipped in massive equipment such as crowd-control vehicles, guns and tear gas to deal with any mass protests after August 8 elections.

The timing and the type of hardware being shipped in point to an assessment by the security forces that there could be violence after the announcement of the results of another hotly-contested election between the incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta of Jubilee and National Super-Alliance flag-bearer Raila Odinga.

That security forces will not leave anything to chance is attested by the ongoing training of security personnel in Embakasi, Nairobi, in rescue operations and crowd control using the latest technology and methods.

Also in a no-nonsense statement, Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet, warned those who will engage in violent activities: We are ready and waiting for you!.

Signs that the forces have picked intelligence and are bracing for possible heady days ahead was discernible from the fact that the national elections body in its estimate has asked for at least 150,000 security officers to be deployed on election-related duties.

ALSO READ: Group raises the red flag over low voter education

Water canons

At least a dozen new South Korean made riot control vehicles arrived in Nairobi at the weekend, increasing to more than 30, the number of water canons for police use to quell chaos.

The fleet of new armoured vehicles with advanced features is in addition to a new consignment of anti-riot gear including teargas canisters, batons, anti-riot wear and guns that have come through the port of Mombasa.

Security sources explained the new anti-riot gear has been distributed to various parts of the country in the past month alone as authorities prepare to secure elections and deal with violence should it break out.

State agencies have mapped out 30 counties as election violence hotspots.

The agencies include National Police Service Commission (NPS), Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) and Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).

Yesterday, top IEBC officials and senior security personnel met to review the situation and plan accordingly, with focus on areas already flagged as potential hotspots.

ALSO READ: The Executive is hell-bent on killing judicial independence

The new fleet is manufactured by Jino Motors which on its website prides itself with specialty in production of world class highly effective riot-control vehicles without fatal blow.

Various security units have been training jointly on crowd control and how to crush riots with authorities keen to ensure the killings and destruction witnessed in 2007 doesnt recur.

The Standard team, last week, witnessed the security teams training at the Embakasi Military Base where they have simulated various situations, including response to civil unrest, terrorism and other forms of insecurity.

The essence of the training organised by the ministries of Interior and Defence for the multi-agency team is to ensure rapid and co-ordinated response.

Officers are drawn from Kenya Defence Forces, NPS, the National Intelligence Service, Kenya Wildlife Services, Kenya Forestry Services, National Youth Service.

The programme is dubbed Exercise Dumisha Utulivu is being conducted at the Humanitarian and Peace Support School in Embakasi. Officials say the training will enable the officers understand the role of the recently formed National Multi-Agency Coordinating Centre,

The officers will also be equipped to understand the chain of command from the strategic down to the tactical level models.

ALSO READ: The Executive is hell-bent on killing judicial independence

But questions have been raised on whether the scale of the arming of police could lead to use of lethal force in the event violence occurs.

More than 1,000 people were killed in ethnic violence following the disputed 2007 presidential election, with police blamed for the shooting to death of at least 400. More than 500,000 were displaced during the chaos.

The new anti-riot vehicles have the capacity to carry 9,000 litres of water and are fixed with various riot control mixing stuff including foam, tear gas and paint that stick to and single out protestors running away.

Gun shooting

The vehicle, according to the manufacturers website, has capacity to mix the chemical from the cabin while water gun shooting.

It has a nozzle of shooting distance of minimum of 25 metres and maximum 70 metres with an elevation of 90 degrees and rotation of 320 degrees. Each of the new trucks has two water cannons on top of the cabin.

It also has a fully automated and centralised control system, a cabin protector and can carry seven crew at a time.

Other features include run-flat tyre so that it can drive under damaged conditions for 50km at 50km per hour. It also has Cabin Pressure Control System for increasing the pressure of the cabin to keep external gas out, ventilation and air pressure control.

ALSO READ: IEBC to ask for extra security in clash-prone regions

Tonnes of tear gas canisters are also among resources that have been mobilised and sent to various places ahead of the polls.

The tear gas canisters were sent on lorries to various places perceived as hot spots to help in dispersing crowds in case of violence.

Security chiefs have identified various conflicts that are a risk to national security. These include cattle rustling, terror attacks, protests and riots, ethnic clashes and conflict between herders and farmers over scarce resources.

Given that the 2017 General Election is attracting unprecedented competition among political parties and aspirants at both grassroots and national level, there are more fears of violence.

Senior police officers are being reshuffled as part of efforts to bolster operations.

A meeting of senior police commanders is scheduled for Thursday in Nairobi to fine-tune their plans for the elections.

Boinnet said they are ready to provide security during the polls, even as the European Union observer teams warned there is a possibility of violence breaking out.

Boinnet said his regional commanders have been holding regular meetings to review their plans and exuded confidence they are now ready for the polls.

NPS is ready and prepared to provide a safe, secure and peaceful environment for Kenyans to participate in the 2017 elections, he said.

ALSO READ: IEBC: Elections will not be held on August 8 if we obey court orders

Boinnet also assured that police will be neutral during the period.

We are set. We are up to the task. We are satisfied with the security arrangements so far and wish to assure Kenyans no (security) agent will be partisan. We will be non-partisan, he said.

He made the remarks amid concerns there would be challenges in many parts of the country and especially in Northern Kenya and Lamu where Al Shabaab militants have been staging attacks, killing and displacing many.

Boinnet explained they have been working with IEBC to know where to deploy officers and the numbers.

We have mobilised all needed logistics that will enable us provide a secure environment for the polls. We assure all they will vote, he said.

The logistics include helicopters, vehicles, boats and other anti-riot gear that will help them manage rowdy crowds.

Other insiders said there is increasing fear among police officers that there could be an outbreak violence before or after the polls, given emerging events in the country.

NPS is mobilising helicopters from other agencies to respond to any violence within the shortest time possible.

Police have three working helicopters and will arrange for more from Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya Pipeline, KenGen, Kenya Power, Kenya Forest Service and other agencies to move troops and other resources to places of need.

More than 5,000 vehicles have since 2013 been leased for police at an undisclosed cost and most of them will be deployed to cover the polls. Further, several government agencies have been ordered to surrender their vehicles to police ahead of the elections.

Whereas there are about 100,000 police officers, IEBC says it needs at least 150,000 security officers for the exercise.

Training officers

The rest will be sourced from Prisons, National Intelligence Service, Kenya Wildlife Services, Kenya Forestry Services and National Youth Service but they will have to be gazetted as special police officers.

IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati told a forum they are in the process of training security officers on election management in a programme being undertaken in partnership with security agencies while affirming IEBCs readiness to punish those who contravene the electoral code of conduct.

He said that 600 officers have already been trained and that a similar number to follow. The programme will continue until at least 150,000 security officers are trained and deployed across the country.

This programme will see a total of 150,000 officers cascaded down to the ground for purposes of polls. We want to assure you there will be security throughout the country, Chebukati said.

Before he died, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery said all the security agencies have been sensitised to facilitate the security and integrity of the elections.

Nkaissery further said that 29 counties with a higher likelihood of violence had been identified and adequate measures put in place to pre-empt occurrences of unrest during the electioneering period.

This is where insiders say these water canons will be sent.

For instance, at least three canons will be sent to Uasin Gishu. We have mapped out security conflict hotspots and developed focus mitigation strategies.

Weve identified particularly 20 counties and therefore women candidates in those counties will be given security based on the situations obtaining in specific hot spots, explained Nkaissery during a meeting in Nairobi.

It will help them plan and conduct time sensitive response to incidents during electioneering period, he added.

Link:
More tear gas, guns arrive to deal with mass protests after August elections - The Standard

Wonderings are brought to you every week by our good friends at Gator's Bayou. If you're looking for a real, authentic Cajun restaurant in Lubbock complete with a fun, Louisiana-style atmosphere, Gator's Bayou is the place to go!

Oh, and get the Dirty Bird. You can thank me later.

Media Days have arrived throughout the country for every major college football conference, meaning the teams that make up those conferences are busy convening to preview their upcoming seasons.

But lets be very honest here: Media Days have become an absolute drag. It's a cookie cutter, "Your Generic Answer Goes Here" Festival of bland commentary and gamesmanship where every team is simply there for Marshawn Lynchian purposes.

It's a contest to see who can say the least and make the smallest amount of noise, all in the name of simply not saying anything that might cause a stir or create any kind of controversy.

And I fully believe that college football programs are shooting themselves in the foot by taking the strong, silent type approach.

I think that doubly counts for Texas Tech football going into 2017. The narrative for the Red Raiders regionally and nationally is all fairly in-step: Defense has been terrible, you've got to replace a ton of production on offense, and unless you take a real step forward, this is all she wrote for Kliff Kingsbury's program in Lubbock.

That's what most folks around the state of Texas believe about the program. They, bluntly, see you as an afterthought heading into this fall.

And while that could end up being true, Kliff Kingsbury and his four players - Dylan Cantrell, KeKe Coutee, Cam Batson, and Jah'Shawn Johnson - have a chance to tell their side of the story. They have a chance to try and shift the narrative with what they tell all that listen on Monday in Frisco. They have a chance to influence the message.

But will they?

Again, Kliff has never been one to make bold statements or hold court at really any media event of any kind. I understand that and the idea behind it, but this year of all years is inarguably the one season where you need to come out with a strong message to set the tone. You can write the headlines you want to be out there instead of allowing media members to run roughshod over your program, because they'll dictate the common thoughts on your team's season if you don't.

And I fully understand not wanting your players to make any regrettable statements or blurt out any facepalmy ideas. But you have a group of four intelligent, well thought of players that I'd be absolutely stunned to see embarrass your program. Instead of coaching their personalities or opinions out of them, let them be a little bold. Let them be themselves. It's a group you can trust to represent Red Raider football and help spread the message of what you really feel about your team behind closed doors, which I know to be a team that believes they're being overlooked.

So, my plea to Texas Tech football: Let your hair down. Stand out from the crowd. Do yourself a favor by controlling the message. You need to.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - I'll admit that I didn't love this movie, but it slides in at 5 because I don't think it's been one of the better overall summer movie seasons in the last decade or so. Still, it's a lot of fun and retains the spirit of the first. The story isn't great and it's a little clunky, though.

4. Spider-Man: Homecoming - Wow, I could not have been happier with the way that Marvel went about trying to capture the spirit of what Peter Parker and Spider-Man really embody. It's a John Hughes movie for 2017 in a superhero film's body, and it was a great setup for the character's future as a key cog in the Marvel Universe. My one complaint is that the action was a little dull and wasn't directed particularly well.

3. Wonder Woman - I was completely skeptical of this movie going in with as poorly executed as the rest of the DC Movies have been so far, but Patty Jenkins deserves a standing ovation for what she accomplished here. It's fun, epic, and has real heart. Gal Gadot and Chris Pine are both great, too.

2. War for the Planet of the Apes - I caught this on Thursday evening, and my oh my. This is a wonderful swan song for what I now consider one of the greatest movie trilogies in modern movie history. Since it just came out, I won't spoil much, but Andy Serkis as Caesar and Woody Harrelson as the leader of the human army are both fantastic and play off each other very, very well.

1. Baby Driver - This will be the best movie I see all year, and I'll stand by that until January 1st. I don't think The Last Jedi, Dunkirk, or any other film will be as good. I'm completely serious, too. This is as well directed of a movie as you're going to to see in modern film. It's a masterclass in directing and editing. The music is a living character in it, too. This embodies the magic of why we go to the movies.

Read the rest here:
Wonderings: Tech can control the message at Media Days. Will They? - Rivals.com (press release)

The addition of Chromecast networknotifications probably seemed like a good idea at the time. They allow you to control media even if you aren't the one who started playback. However, you see those notifications on your device even if you're not watching or listening to the content, and you can end up with multiple cast notifications on a busy network. Google is finally making these notifications optional with a togglethat turns offall the network notifications for your Chromecast or Google Home.

Previously, you could only disable the notifications on a per device basis. So, each person on your network had to go into their Google settings and turn off the notifications. According to Google's Chromecast support page, there's a toggle in the Google Home app that can disable the notifications for all content at the network level. Casting to thedevice will no longer produce a media notification for anyone on your network. Here's how you do it... or how you will eventually.

Google seems to have jumped the gun a little adding this to the support page. No one on the AP team has this optionin settings yet, even those of us in the preview program. Give it a few days and the toggle will probably appear.

This seems to be live for everyone now.

Read more:
[Update: Live for everyone] You can disable all network media notifications for Chromecasts and Google Homes - Android Police

Donald Trump Jr.

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A daily roundup of the biggest stories in right-wing media.

Conservatives continued to debate the implications of Donald Trump Jr.s meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign as new details about other attendees emerged on Friday. On Fox News, Shepard Smith and Chris Wallace met those revelations with incredulity.

On The Fox News Specialists, however, Eric Bolling insisted that the ties of one of the revealed attendees, Rinat Akhmetshin, to the firm behind the anti-Trump dossier compiled by Christopher Steele suggest that the Russians might have been colluding with Hillary Clinton to get information on Donald Trump.

At the Resurgent, Erick Erickson wrote that the Trump Jr. meeting had taken on the appearance of a setup:

Erickson explained that the slow revelation of details about the meeting, which presumably would have been useful to Clinton before the election if it was a setup, may have been intended to cover the Democrats tracks. If you had helped stage the meeting and didnt want it to look like a set up, wouldnt you let the reporters run their natural course instead of throwing it all at them? he asked. But I certainly think we need to ask if the Russians were playing both sides and no one wants to ask that, if only because many of those in the position to ask it favored the losing side.

Conservatives dug more deeply into the Senates latest version of their health care bill on Friday. National Review published an editorial calling the bill a step in the right direction:

National Review editor Rich Lowry lauded Ted Cruzs work on the bill in a separate post. If this bill goes down, Republicans arent going to come back at it with a more free-market approachin fact the opposite, he wrote. This is why its been so important that Cruz has stayed at the table, worked at persuading his colleagues, and moved a flawed bill to the right. His approach is a stark contrast to that of Rand Paul, who is simply opposed to anything proposed by leadership and anything short of his vision of purity.

At the Federalist, John Daniel Davidson praised the Cruz amendment, which allows the sale of non-Obamacare compliant insurance plans. This would almost certainly be an improvement over Obamacare because it would allow room for an actual insurance market, for Americans who are actually insurable, he wrote. For those who arent, there would be the exchanges, which would function like high-risk pools. One of the great follies of Obamacare is that it didnt allow insurance to function as insurance anymore. If you force insurance companies to cover things that have already happened, thats not insurance; its a junky, yet expensive, version of health care as a public utility.

On Fox Business, conservative commentator and Trump supporter Harlan Hill said that Republicans not on the same team as Trump should fear the consequences of not fulfilling promises to repeal and replace Obamacare.

If they can not muster the support to pass a repeal and replacement of Obamacare that theyve been promising their constituents for years now, then were going to fire them, he said. Its that clear and it has to be done this year. No excuses. No more recesses.

View original post here:
Today in Conservative Media: Maybe Hillary Was Behind Trump Jr.'s Meeting! - Slate Magazine (blog)

When one of Australia's biggest political donors sought to deny links to a secretive Chinese Communist Party lobbying organisation, he did so in the style befitting a billionaire.

Chau Chak Wing, who has given more than $4 million to the major parties, instructed his lawyer to write to the chief executive of Fairfax Media, Greg Hywood, and the ABC's managing director, Michelle Guthrie. He demanded apologies, saying: "Chau has no knowledge of an entity referred to ... as the United Front Work Department".

Late last month, Chau also conducted an "exclusive", front-page interview with the Murdoch newspaper, The Australian, in which he claimed he had "no idea" of the existence of the organisation.

"As to the entity referred to by the ABC as the 'united front work department', I have no idea what this is," Mr Chau said in the story, referring to a joint Fairfax Media and Four Corners investigation aired month.

The investigation revealed ASIO's concerns about links between Chinese Communist Party-aligned organisations that seek to advance Beijing's interests, and political donors such as Chau. The Australian citizen, who is one of the nation's bigger donors and philanthropists, has hosted senior ministers, diplomats and former leaders Kevin Rudd and John Howard at conferences held at Chau's palatial Guangdong resort.

The fallout from the Fairfax Media and Four Corners' investigation which comes as the US grapples with allegations that Russia sought influence in America's political system includes a commitment from the Turnbull government to introduce new laws to counter foreign interference and fresh debate about political donations reform.

The United Front Work Department is an obscure but important Chinese Communist Party organisation. President Xi Jinping described its work in a landmark 2014 speech as a "magic weapon" for the "Chinese people's great rejuvenation," and a means for the Party to seize victory.

Academics say the UFWD is dedicated to asserting and spreading Party influence inside China and abroad, which is why it has caught the attention of ASIO.

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A simple Mandarin Google search reveals some of Chau's United Front Work Department connections.

A deeper dive into the online archives of Chinese government agencies and media offers more clues: pictures of Chau hosting UFWD leaders; UFWD publications featuring Chau; and documents from government websites listing Chau as a member of UFWD-aligned organisations.

And then there is the file that forms part of the database US army officer Chelsea Manning copied onto a Lady Gaga CD and leaked to Wikileaks in 2010. This "sensitive" file is about Chau and the United Front Work Department. It was written by Guangzhou-based US Consul General Robert Goldberg in 2007 and distributed to American intelligence agencies.

While its contents have not before been made public, the cable has most likely been analysed by ASIO as part of the 'five eyes' intelligence sharing arrangement.

It details a meeting Goldberg held with Chau in Guangdong, a province in China's booming Pearl River Delta region. According to Goldberg, Chau told him in this meeting that "the provincial government, with central government backing, had decided" that a new business organisation in the region was needed to assist "overseas Chinese". Chau was to lead it.

Goldberg wrote that the founding meeting of the Guangdong Overseas Chinese Businessmen's Association "clearly had political implications, with participation by [several Chinese Communist Party figures including] ... the director of the United Front Department".

Despite Chau's "comments to the contrary", Goldberg asserted that the Communist Party involvement in Chau's organisation suggested "its formation has more political meaning than economic that it is part of the party's United Front strategy."

"It strikes us that the Association is essentially a creature of the CPC's [Chinese Communist Party's] United Front program."

Chau's United Front links have also been detailed by the UFWD itself. In 2016, a Guangzhou district United Front Work Department committee published a photograph showing Chau meeting with the local UFWD chief, Xie Wei.

A UFWD report of the meeting with Chau describes the Australian billionaire welcoming "district party standing committee member and UFWD head Xie Wei" as he led a UFWD delegation visiting the headquarters of Chau's business, the Kingold Group, a diversified property development company. Also in attendance was "UFWD deputy head and Taiwan affairs office head Xue Jianbin."

"Kingold Group Chairman and well-known Australian Chinese leader Dr Chau Chak Wing welcomed the party committee delegation's arrival. Both sides entered an intimate discussion, with Dr Chau introducing the current situation of his business's growth and his own situation in promoting China-Australia cultural exchange and trade cooperation to Xie's delegation."

In 2014, a United Front Work Department provincial publication published an article lauding Chau's philanthropy under the website banner "Shantou United Front".

Chau has also previously served on the committee of a Sydney United Front affiliate organisation, the Australian Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China. The body is dedicated to advocating for Beijing's territorial claims, with a focus on Taiwan.

The Fairfax Media and Four Corners' investigation into the Chinese Communist Party's attempts to influence Australian institutions sparked significant debate. The government announced an inquiry into the adequacy of Australia's intelligence agency laws, Bill Shorten called for the issue to be referred to a joint parliamentary committee, and the Coalition and Labor traded barbs in parliament over the links between senior politicians and various donors.

China's Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye attacked the reporting that sparked the fall-out, likening it to a re-heated plate of stale fried rice.

Chau, an Australian citizen, not only gave an interview to The Australian (he declined earlier interview requests from Fairfax Media and Four Corners and did not answer a detailed list of questions) but has launched legal action against Fairfax Media and the ABC. Chau claims the coverage has falsely inferred he has betrayed Australia to further Beijing's interests and the work of the organisation he claims to know nothing about the UFWD.

Chau did not respond to questions about why he has disavowed knowledge of the UFWD or why he has also claimed to have "never been a member of an advisory group called the People's Political Consultative Conference", a body managed by the United Front Work Department. A Chinese government website describes Chau as a past member of a CPPCC in Tianhe.

A hint about Chau's attitude towards the media may lie in the fact that he owns a Guangdong newspaper, the New Express, in a country where the press is vetted by propaganda authorities.

The 2007 diplomatic cable asserts that Chau "is thought to have used his considerable connections to take over" the paper, which Consul General Goldberg describes as affiliated with the provincial Communist Party. This was "an unusual transaction given government sensitivity to media control in China." It's a sensitivity Chau appears adept at managing.

In a rare interview about the New Express in 2009, Chau said that "the Chinese government has found this newspaper very commendable because we never have any negative reporting."

Read this article:
Wikileaked: Billionaire Australian donor's Beijing links detailed in 'sensitive' diplomatic cable - The Sydney Morning Herald