She said during the last campaigns, wrong elements attacked the government through posting fake stories on social media but those supposed to counter them remained silent.
Nakalema was on Monday speaking to 97 government communications managers and public relations officers undergoing a two-week retreat at the National Leadership Training Institute, Kyankwanzi from May 26 to May 28.
The retreat was organized by the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance in conjunction with NALI.
Delivering a paper on the theme, “Improving trust in public offices’, Nakalema said that she receives a lot of complaints and many suggest that citizens were not well informed and therefore lack information.
‘If they were informed, many of the corruption incidents would have reduced’, she said, adding that there was a big gap that many of the government achievements had not been well communicated to the public.
She, however, said that after the training, the communicators should be in a position to effectively and efficiently communicate what government does.
She urged them to be warriors and fight to defend their offices and the government. She said many Ugandans felt they were abandoned and on their own.
Nakalema said that although some Ugandans lost lives during the November riots last year, some people on social media used pictures of mass killings from other countries and posted them on social media giving an impression that they had occurred in Uganda.
‘The postings gave a picture as if Uganda was at war,’ she said, adding that the training was intended to equip them with skills to defend their country against negative publications.
The function was attended by the NALI director, Major Gen. David Kasula Kyomukama.
The training is supposed to improve the information and communication functions of the trainees and encourage consistent messaging.
It is also supposed to reflect on their entities with a view of sharing success stories and challenges to deliberate on the government brand and the need to improve the same.