National honors and awards Act No. 14 enacted in 2001 and accented to by the President in 2005. Its commencement date was on 1st Aug. 2007.
Not much information is available on the history of Honors and Awards but the earliest record I have ever known is that of the National Order of the Legion of Honor, a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte. It’s the Highest Decoration in France established in 1804, it was Napoleon’s wish to commend Civilians and Combatants alike. Every country or organization has its own system of recognizing and rewarding outstanding contributions and achievements of their citizens (staff).
Prominent examples of awards are, the Academy Award (Oscars), Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, Pulitzer Awards, Nobel Prize Awards, Olympic Champion Awards, International Footballer Awards.
Recently it took over three weeks for the world’s Athletic Vetting and confirming of one of our own Joshua Cheptegei’s new record!!. Equally religious organizations like Churches beautify their persons and award titles like Monsignor, Canon, Archbishop etcetera. The Academia likewise confers many titles like Professor, Honorary Professor, Senator.
The corporate sector also hands out awards like the Employee of the year or sales person of the month awards. Such recognition puts on record public appreciation for the sacrifice and or contributions of persons who have distinguished themselves in service of the country or the institution. The importance of awards include: they are instruments for inspiring Citizens to strive for excellence, they are a motivation to contribute more actively towards promoting the nation’s value systems, they are an indication of the kind of behavior desired above and beyond the normal and instill a sense of patriotism and nationalism in society.
Awards in the form of Orders, Medals and Decorations exist almost everywhere in society. Governments and Non-government organizations all give awards in Sports, the Civil, Military, Media, Culture among others.
Much of my teenager life was spent in Kenya, where their awards and honors are formatted and designed in a way that their medal initials form part of the recipient’s signature block e.g. Elder of the Golden Heart of Kenya (Hon. Janet Kataha Museveni – EGH), Elder of the Burning Spear (Gen. Mugisha Muntu- EBS), Chief of the Golden Heart of Kenya (Nabendeh Wamoto Simon – CGH), Chief of the Golden Heart of Kenya (Dr. Col. Kiiza Besigye – CGH) and so on and so forth. By the year 2004 my Kenyan OBs and OGs at Kenya Utalii College who were working and State House – Nairobi had been awarded Elder of the Burning Spear due to their sensitive appointments and were surprised that I had not been awarded yet I was in the middle of a more sensitive assignment feeding not one but hundreds of the region’s Army Generals!!.
Uganda awards Nalubale medal, Kagera medal, Luweero Triangle medal, National Independence medal, Damu medal, Distinguished Order of the Crested Crane and the Distinguished Order of the Nile but the identification and vetting of recipients especially by the Resident District Commissioners, Presidential Awards Committee (PAC) and secretary to the Chancery is up to now not understandable.
Nabendeh Wamoto S.P (0776-658433)
Email: simonwamoto@yahoo.co.uk
