Enhancing Well-Being: Urban Karimojong Youth between Security and Development in Uganda

The dissertation focus on male youths living in Moroto Town in Uganda’s traditionally pastoral Karamoja region, and how they sought to enhance their well-being in the nexus between government security and development policies and interventions. The puzzle driving the analysis is the paradoxical position of the male urban youth as change agents towards the government’s – largely anti-pastoral - ideas of a good life, while being most ardent critics of the government. The argument is that Moroto Town was in a post-conflict conjuncture which provided space for the urbanites to focus towards an enhancement of their well-being, but also space for critical citizenship where demands were made of their government. This at times led to critique in the form of narratives of corruption and mistrust.