It can be said that the real meaning of the rule of law has been very weak since the inception of Somalia in 1960. In this study, there are three broad aspect of the rule of law to consider before we draw the conclusion (a) There was no full understanding under the concept of the rule of law during the nine years of civil government from 1960-1969, since the concept was inherited from the colonial powers but the European colonial master, on the other hands, equally suffered from being arbitrary, capricious and disorganized (b) When the military government came to power, certain provisions of the existing constitution were partially or wholly suspended through the usual Constitution Suspension and legal notice.
This process was usually an attempt to maintain power, gain legitimacy for the government and to ensure that popular discontent with the military was killed without minding the considerable erosion of the rule of law. To suspend the constitution amounts to infringing on the collective will of the people as contained in the constitution that is ordained by the people for themselves which are the very foundation of the rule of law and constitutional order. Moreover, the military ruled by Decrees and usually most of the decrees have ouster clauses the provision of which makes anything done or purportedly done pursuant to or under such decrees non-justiciable.
Mostly, the military is characterized the suspension of the constitution, abuses of human rights, dismissal of democratic institutions (executive and legislature) though leaving the judiciary that cannot just be washed away under any disguise, but not without some bruises; restriction of jurisdiction of the courts by decrees. With this there was a running battle between the courts and the military, with the courts flying to jealously guide their jurisdiction on the one hand its actions go unchallenged on the other hand.
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