A few days ago, URA Customs Officer Enid Priscilla Katusiime opened a shipping container at the Busia border. The declaration read “personal effects” from Turkey. Inside: kitchenware. Then four boxes stacked with 10.2 million US dollars, roughly Shs 38 billion, in undeclared cash.
The clearing agent’s offer came fast, whispering with arrogance and fear mixed with flattery: “It’s your time to get rich, do not report us.” There is something big for you, a bribe of Uganda Shs 500 million, or by some accounts Shs 300 million, which indeed can change someone’s life.
Ms. Katusiime’s answer was faster: “As a born-again Christian, I cannot sin by accepting the bribe.” This was a bombshell in a country where supposedly ‘You Are Serious Alone’.
She reported it. URA recovered every dollar. URA’s Commissioner General John Musinguzi Rujoki now calls her heroic, and awarded her Uganda Shs 50 million and a promotion, saying: “This kind of integrity is exactly what we expect from our officers as we work to mobilise revenue for national development in a transparent and efficient manner.”
The Market Square /Street Verdict vs. The Moral Verdict.
The story is trending from taxi parks to lunch-hour fellowships. From saloons said to be Uganda’s top gossip spots. But listen to the street guys and the social media keyboard warriors, including foot soldiers from whichever camp: “She’s myopic.
“She missed a golden chance to change her family for decades. Kampala’s skyscrapers were built on theft, and those men sit in front pews, mic in hand, speaking like angels from Heaven Global AirPort”, some voices are heard everywhere.
That cynicism is real. It is born from seeing corruption rewarded, the corrupt literally worshipped and praised, and honesty punished. But cynicism is not truth. It’s a wound that has learned to sound like wisdom.
So, let’s answer it with law, economics, and Moral Theology.
Why Ugandans Should Celebrate and Emulate Her.
Because Shs 38 billion belongs to all of us.
Like Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni once commented that the Indian Ocean also belongs to Uganda and went ahead to state that we also have a share of the moon, the point is: national wealth is shared.
That money was hidden to dodge taxes. Taxes build Seed Schools like Masese Seed SS, buy ARVs, pay UPF, UPDF salaries, fix potholes in Kamuli, Bududa or Nakasongola. When one person steals Shs 38 billion, every expectant mother visiting a health facility misses a glove or syringe. Integrity at the border is medicine in a health center.
Because “Serious Alone” Is A Lie.
The moment one person refuses, the chain breaks. Katusiime did not just save Shs 38 billion. She showed 20,000 other URA staff, 2 million boda-boda riders, and 45 million citizens that it can be done. Corruption dies in public when honesty goes public. Her Shs 50 million might appear peanut compared to the bribe, but it matters. It tells every junior officer: “The system can see you, and it can pay you.”
Because the economics of bribes are false.
Shs 500 million is life-changing, yes. But it is also a noose. Bribes come with owners. You take it once; you are owned forever. Next container, you cannot say no. You become an asset of smugglers, not a citizen of Uganda. Ms Katusiime chose freedom over a golden cage.
Because the skyscrapers lie is killing us.
Yes, some towers were built on stolen money. But look again: those “respectable” owners live behind high walls, trust no one, sleep with security, and fear every knock at 3 a.m. including rats or cockroaches doing their own business in rooftops. Proverbs 10:22 says: “The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.” Stolen wealth adds sorrow: prison, exile, ulcers, estranged children. Katusiime’s Shs 50 million came with a promotion and a clear name. Which is richer?
Moral Theology: What the Ancients and the Scriptures Say.
St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD), one of the most influential thinkers in Christian history and Western philosophy, wrote in City of God: “Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but great bands of robbers?” A customs post without integrity is just a tollbooth for thieves. Katusiime put justice back.
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274 AD), a Dominican friar, priest, philosopher and theologian, wrote on justice: “Justice is a habit whereby a man renders to each one his due by a constant and perpetual will.” She rendered to Uganda its due, tax, law, truth, by constant will, in the 30 seconds it took to say no.
Catholic Social Teaching calls this the common good. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1906 defines it as “the sum total of social conditions which allow people to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.” Shs 38 billion recovered is roads, vaccines, teacher pay. That is the common good, cash in hand.
Islamic Tradition agrees. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: “The honest merchant will be with the prophets, the truthful, and the martyrs.” (Tirmidhi). Katusiime was a merchant of the state’s trust. She chose the rank of the truthful.
What Christian Ethicists Add to This Moment?
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971), the American theologian who shaped 20th-century Christian realism, warned: “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” Katusiime exercised that capacity for justice at Busia.
Her act proves democracy is possible in Uganda. But the street’s mockery proves our inclination to injustice is why we need systems that reward her, not shame her. When the state gives Shs 50M and a promotion, it is democracy becoming necessary and visible.
Stanley Martin Hauerwas (b. 1940), American theological ethicist and professor emeritus at Duke Divinity School, argues: “The church does not have a social ethic; the church is a social ethic.” The Church’s job is not just to preach honesty; it is to be the community where honesty is normal.
Katusiime’s declaration shows the Church was a social ethic inside one customs officer. The question for Uganda’s churches: Are we producing more Katusiimes, or are we giving mics to whitewashed tombs?
John Samuel Mbiti (1931–2019), the Kenyan Anglican priest and father of African theology who taught for a decade at Makerere University, wrote: “In African societies, immorality is that which militates against life.” Corruption kills health centers, police stations, land offices, universities, schools, and trust.
It militates against life. Katusiime’s “no” chose life for the child in my Otwal Sub County in Oyam, the mother at Mpumudde Health Centre IV in Jinja City, the pupil in Gadumire, Kaliro. That is Rev Canon Mbiti’s communal ethic crossing the Busia border in the hands of a Ugandan customs officer.
If Jesus Came to Uganda Now, What Would He Tell Enid Katusiime?
He would not give her a lecture on economics. He would recognize her.
Luke 16:10: “Whoever is faithful in very little is faithful also in much.” She was faithful in one container. Heaven notes that.
Matthew 25:21: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” She guarded Shs 38 billion for a nation. The “well done” is already hers.
Matthew 5:6, 10: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” The market is mocking her. That’s persecution. The blessing is attached.
Jesus might also flip the question to the crowd at the Jinja taxi park led by Hajji Khalid Muyingo. In Luke 12:15 Jesus said: “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
To the man building skyscrapers on bribes who sits in the front pew: Matthew 23:27 “Woe to you hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones.”
To Enid Katusiime, Jesus would likely say what He told Zacchaeus after restitution: “Today salvation has come to this house.” But she (Katusime) did not need restitution. She prevented the theft. So, He would say: “Today, because of you, salvation came to many houses you will never meet, the child who gets a textbook, the mother who finds drugs at the Health Centre in Otwal Sub County in Oyam, Mpumudde Health Centre IV in Jinja City or Gadumire in Kaliro.”
The Balance: We Do Not Condemn the Poor, We Challenge the Lie.
We must be honest: many Ugandans are mocking Katusiime not because they love sin, but because they have been betrayed by systems. They have seen honest men die poor while thieves get tithes and titles.
That pain is real. But the solution is not joining the theft. It’s multiplying Katusiime so that Ugandans can have millions of such character.
Her reward of Shs 50 million is 10% of the bribe offered. Small? Maybe. But it’s clean, pensionable, and comes with a promotion, a ladder, not a trapdoor. If 1,000 or one million officers do the same, the bribe market collapses. Corruption is only profitable when it’s common. Integrity becomes profitable when it’s common.
The Takeaway for the common person and the believer.
Celebrate her because she paid your children’s school fees (UPE/USE schools). That Shs 38 billion was yours.
Emulate her because freedom is better than money. No smuggler owns her today.
Correct the altar lie. A front pew bought by theft is still a back row before God. James 2:6: “Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?”
Change the proverb from “In Uganda You Are Serious Alone” to “In Uganda You Are Serious First.” First is how movements start.
Final Word: Uganda does not need more skyscrapers with dirty foundations. It needs more Enid Katusiimes at every gate, school, store, counter, bridgeway, hospital, police squad and post, URA, and church where some pastors pray depending on the number of khaki envelopes or mobile money inflows.
Because a nation is not built by the size of its bribes refused, but by the number of people who still say no.
Well done, Enid Katusime. Uganda saw you. Heaven did too.
Editorial Conclusion
By TEU
Enid Katusiime did not just catch smugglers. She caught us. She caught our excuses, our proverbs, and our theology.
For years we have preached that Uganda is cursed by poverty. Katusiime proved we are cursed by proverbs. “You Are Serious Alone” is not analysis. It is surrender. It is a country giving itself permission to die.
She tore that permission slip in 30 seconds.
To the elders in Uganda: Enid Katusime is your daughter whether she is a Munyankole, Mukiga, Mutoro or Musoga or a Lango lady, Muganda or not.
Remember that an elder does not clap for taboo. If you stay silent while the market calls her myopic, you have clapped. Your bukulu or bedo dano adit (Leblango)dies before you do. Speak, and resurrect it.
To the Church: Hauerwas is right. We do not have a social ethic, we are one. Every time we give the mic to a whitewashed tomb and deny it to a Katusiime, we lie about the Gospel. Augustine said without justice we are just robbers. Aquinas said justice is a habit. Make it a habit to honor the just before you honor the generous. Otherwise, stop calling it a pulpit. Call it a podium for rent.
To the State (URA): Niebuhr said man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. Your Shs 50M and promotion was democracy doing its job. Now do it 1,000 more times, publicly. Publish a “Katusiime List” every quarter. Make integrity more viral than scandal. If corruption pays better than honesty, you wrote the budget for theft.
To every Ugandan who called her foolish: You are not wrong to be angry. You have watched thieves get tithes while honest men get ulcers. But you are wrong to aim that anger at her. She is not the thief who betrayed you. She is the proof you were right to hope. Stop persecuting your own evidence.
Canon John Mbiti taught us that immorality is what militates against life. Katusiime chose life for a child in Oyam, a mother in Jinja, a pupil in Kaliro.
So here is TEU’s verdict: Uganda’s most urgent infrastructure project is not another road. It is another Katusiime. Then another. Then a million.
Because kingdoms without justice are bands of robbers. But a customs booth with justice is the start of a country.
We Expose. You Decide. Uganda Decides Whether To Be Serious Alone, or Serious First.
Katusiime chose First. What will you choose?
