Last Friday, the outgoing Presidential press secretary Don Wanyama announced that Marcella Karekye had been appointed to head Government Citizens Interaction Centre (GCIC), an agency which educates the public about government programmes.
Wanyama’s revelation confirmed our story which we published in February suggesting that she was being considered to take over the institution.
Karekye who holds the position of a director will be deputized by Duncan Abigaba, who previously worked in the office of the President as Deputy Presidential Assistant in charge of Research and Information.
In his Friday communication Don Wanyama added that GCIC which was previously under Ministry of ICT has since been moved to State House, but its mandate remains the same.
In broad, GCIC provides timely, cost-effective and data-driven communication between Government and citizens to enable service delivery, policy formulation, and citizen participation in governance.
Karekye takes the mantle at a time government is grappling with a wave of negative information peddled by opposition forces following a hotly contested election in which President Yoweri Museveni was reelected with 58% of the votes.
His closest rival Mr Robert Kyagulanyi rejected the results alleging that his victory was stolen.
His supporters both domestic and foreign resorted to circulating negative information about Uganda and the regime.
President Museveni has many times faulted government officials for failing to combat the negativity, lies and fabrications with the right and factual story.
He believes the government communicators have not done enough towards circulating the NRM story.
And this will be Karekye’s area of expertise. She comes with rich experience in communication having been in this field for close to 15 years.
Who is Marcella Karekye?
Her professional background includes working as an Acquisitions Editor, for the World Bank, Washington DC (May 2005) and as a senior editor, and business development head with Fountain Publishers Limited.
While working for the two entities, her duties included copyediting, evaluation of manuscripts, proofreading, advising on style, analysing and improving business processes based on research and trends, among others.
Karekye has a bachelor of Arts in Publishing (Hons), with emphasis on editorial techniques and management marketing for publishing, creative writing, typographic design and desktop publishing from Oxford Brookes University Oxford (2001-2004).
She also exudes experience in business administration after completing a masters degree in Business Administration from ESAMI (2010-2012).
Her Major concentration has been on editorial techniques, editorial management, marketing for publishing, creative writing for publishing, production and contexts of contemporary publishing.
She has also worked at Head of Children’s Division/Business Development Manager- Fountain Publishers Ltd, Kampala – Uganda involved in coming up with new proposals that would create more revenue for the firm and also make sure we are up-to-date with the new technological and market trends for our industry.
In 2017 March 2017- December 2018 she worked as Public Relations and Marketing Manager Isaiah 60 Productions.
Uganda had its first locally produced high budget biopic movie released then and Karekye was in charge of promotion and marketing.
In this role, she got the chance to meet different stakeholders in the film industry and understand the dynamics of the industry.
She speaks four languages fluently; English, Luganda, French, Rukiiga and Runyankore.
In high school she attended St Mt St Mary’s Namagunga for her O-level high school education and King’s College Budo at A level.
She is a member of the International Board on Books for Young People, a non-profit organisation which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together.
