11. Eboso Kihima

The head teacher of Mululu Primary School in Vihiga County has been consistent in producing good results over the years in the only public primary school that sends many candidates to national schools.

12. Rachel Maru

She has for the last five years been a first Red Cross responder to victims of accidents along the Salgaa killer stretch. She has helped save many lives in the process. She has been recognized by Nakuru County Governor Lee Kinyanjui for her efforts to save lives.

13. Vitalis Kahenda

He is the founder of Hopewell School that help bright but needy children. With the help of donors, he established the institution but later handed it over to the government. He has established a second one at Kapkures in Nakuru West thus giving opportunity to needy children to access education.

14. Phyllis Omido

She has spearheaded health /medical rights of the poor in slums in Mombasa and combated investors accused of promoting pollution in these areas. She has, specifically, fought lead poisoning in the slums, often at immense personal risk, and has won recognition by the UN, WHO and other global bodies.

15. The late Sheikh Mohamed Idriss

The former Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya chairman preached moderation and promoted peace and cooperation between and among religions. He opposed religious extremism and terrorism without equivocation and fell to the bullet of an assassin, suspected to be a religious fanatic.

16.Father Wilbard Lagho

Fr Lagho, of the Mombasa Catholic Church, based in Mombasa is the face of interfaith dialogue and tolerance.

17. Baya Mitsanze

 He risked to house and rehabilitate elderly men and women, banished from their homes for allegedly practicing witchcraft. He established Kaya Godomo, a sanctuary in Kilifi to house them, at great personal risk in an area where suspicion of witchcraft invites death and attacks.

18. Father Gabriel Dolan

He has been a leading rights crusader for many years. He lives among the poor in Bangladesh slums. He has fought for the poor especially against extrajudicial killings, police brutality, gang warfare and land grabbing in an area where these crimes are common.

19. Father Anthony Kaiser

He went beyond the call to priesthood, standing up against politically instigated ethnic violence and justice for the girl child. Fr Kaiser is credited with saving the lives of two school girls who claimed to have been raped and impregnated by a prominent personality. His firm stand may have led to his controversial death in August 2000, after he was shot in head. His death formed the story of a 2011 Kenyan movie, The Rugged Priest. He deserves to be recognized posthumously.

20. Patrick Njiru

He is an icon in motor racing fondly, known as Safari Rally, helping put Kenya on the global map of the sport. Njiru,60, retired 15 years ago but his name is still synonymous with the sport following his successes. Safari Rally was part of the international circuit World Rally Championship.

21. Prof Okoth Okombo

Until his death last month, Prof Okombo was a distinguished scholar generally regarded as the father of sign language studies in Africa. He was the founder of the Kenyan Sign Language Research Project, based at the University of Nairobi. He deserves recognition for his works.

22. Jim Nyamu

He has walked more than 5,000 kilometers advocating for the end of elephant poaching and ban on ivory trade, including from Boston to Washington DC. His message of Ivory belongs to elephants got him global recognition for protecting the wildlife – an important resource for Kenya. The list is not exhaustive and we invite nominations, from the public, on other unsung heroes and heroines.