Colonial authorities transferred Osman to silence his nursing advocacy.

Evidence

Before Osman took the clerical post he spoke on several occasions with Doctor Bacchelli, director of Mogadishu’s health department, about the possibility of improving working conditions for the nursing staff or allowing them to go into private practice. Apparently Osman’s persistent lobbying for Somali nurses irritated the director. His transfer to the clerical services was evidently a ploy to get rid of him lest he influence other nurses. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 151