Since they were aware that they had come to power by buying the votes of the majority of the MPs who elected them, they assumed other ambitious politicians might do likewise to drive them out of power. Consequently, the new leaders did not trust the very democratic process that brought them to power and went about changing it to perpetuate their authority, thus paving the way for authoritarian rule.

Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, loc. 964