Tusso was dismissed for beating his cook and took Osman with him to Mogadishu

Evidence

Tusso was kind to Osman but not to others. One day Osman accidentally dropped a dozen plates on the floor as he helped set the dinner table for Tusso and three of his friends. Abukar and Tusso’s Ethiopian cook did not scold the boy, but Osman feared the worst from the boss. To Osman’s amazement, Tusso did not even reprimand him. In contrast, the accountant was not as kind to his cook. Early in 1923 Tusso thrashed the cook and chased him into the resident commissioner’s house. Tusso struck the cook in the presence of the commissioner and his wife. For this offense, the accountant was sent back to Mogadishu, and Osman went with his benefactor. During the trip Tusso rode a mule while Osman alternately walked and rode Tusso’s white horse. The accountant’s leopard was mounted in its cage on a camel’s back during the first leg of the journey, but when the caravan camped overnight, it vanished into the bush. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 137