Veteran journalist Simon Kasyate has been appointed a communications specialist in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), according to sources.
In this role, sources said, he will be the major communications advisor for two government programmes: the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (Nusaf) and the Development Response to Displacement Impacts Project (DRDIP).
Sources say the appointment was made recently and he moved in quietly.
Kasyate will work alongside Benson Ongom, a former NBS TV journalist. Ongom was recently appointed spokesperson for Nusaf IV at the OPM.
Nusaf and DRDIP are government-run projects that support poor and affected communities, with a strong focus on northern Uganda.
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The appointment follows a period in private work for Kasyate. He left the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) in 2024, where he briefly worked as spokesperson.
Kasyate built his name in broadcast journalism and is widely known as a television reporter and radio talk show host.
He started out at WBS TV as a presenter of the Teens’ Club before graduating to a reporter. He left and joined Daily Monitor, where he rose to become a senior investigative reporter.
One of the most memorable stories he wrote at Daily Monitor was the “under wear shoplifiting scandal” that involved Ofwono Opondo, the former government spokesperson. He wrote it on April 5, 2005.
Ofwono took the newspaper in court but later withdrew the case.
In 2006, Kasyate moved to NTV and, among other roles, he was the host of its flagship talk show, On the Spot and two years later, he was named Uganda’s Investigative Journalist of the Year.
After years in the media, he moved into communications work, including stints at the European Union (EU), Eskom Uganda, UEGCL, and later, KCCA. Now he is at OPM.
