Donald Matiri: Drama as police officers raid the home of young graphic artist

Donald Matiri, a resident of Rongai, on Tuesday, June 24 took to X to share short videos of plain clothes police officers attempting to repeatedly talk him into opening his door.

Matiri, however, remains adamant and stays behind his closed door as he asks the officers to identify themselves and state the purpose of their unexpected visit.

One officer, who has a Masaai shuka thrown over his shoulders, is seen leaning on Matiri's door, pleading with him to open his door as they both get into a verbal exchange that doesn't seem to help much.

"Tell me what you want so I may help you," Matiri says to the officers. "What's your name? Show your identification so the camera can record it. Display it properly so my camera can capture it. You're a public officer. What do you want?"

After identifying himself only as "Collins", the officer proceeds to show his identity card to Matiri and then asks him to open his door.

"Fungua kwanza," he says, to which Matiri flatly replies, "Hio haiwezekani."

In yet another video, a different police officer, this time wearing jungle fatigue and a bucket hat, presses his nose right against Matiri's door, attempting to talk him into opening. Again, it doesn't work.

"Show me a court order. For me to open my door, I need a court order. What is the reason for coming to my house?" Matiri asks.

"It's very simple: You just tell us, "I'm not opening the door"", the exasperated officer says.

"That's fine. I'm not opening the door!" Matiri defiantly replies.

On X, Matiri has been on a sustained campaign of sensitizing the public on the unfolding drama, tagging various influential figures and activists and maintaining that things are not too rosy. 

"Guys, there are officers outside my house! If you see this, repost. This is not a drill. They are still outside my house..." he wrote in a series of tweets.

Replying to one of the videos, Hanifa Adan wrote: "Police officers are outside Donald Matiri’s house trying to arrest him!! What do you even want with someone at 6am!!! If anything happens to Donald, @NPSOfficial_KE you will pay!!"

In another tweet, she simply told him, "Please do not open the door!"

It is not yet clear why the police are after Matiri and what he may have said or done to warrant an early morning raid.

The incident comes just a day before June 25, a day that millions of Kenyans are eagerly looking forward to as they plan to flood the streets in memory of the dark events of June 25 2024 after thousands of protesters stormed parliament and many lost their lives in a historic march against the Ruto administration.