Somali leaders moved freely and unguarded because consensual politics removed threats

Evidence

Consequently, one of the common sights [in Mogadishu] of the period was to see Prime Minister Abdirazak Haji Hussen sitting in Juba hotel, sipping a cup of tea while duel- ing verbally with the critics of his government. He would, at the end, calmly walk, usually alone, to his house, situated a few hundred metres up the hill to the then Monopolio. An equally familiar sight of the period was to find the President of the Republic, Aden Abdulle Osman, performing his Maqreb prayers, beside his small Fiat, alone or with an ad hoc prayers gathering on the road side. There just were no reasons then for either of them to worry about his personal safety. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 694

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• Consensus politics freed Somali leaders from fear of political violence (similarity 0.91)
• The consensual politics of the Abdirazak government eliminated political violence and intimidation (similarity 0.79)
• Somali citizens felt free to confront their leaders with demands (similarity 0.79)
• Post-1967 Somali leaders died or fled while Osman lived unthreatened. (similarity 0.78)