The teaching profession in Kenya has in the recent past experienced disharmony which has been occasioned by teachers’ strikes, withdrawal of labour and teacher turnover. These industrial disputes have majorly been linked to remuneration. However, the clamour for better salary could be masking other unmet needs in the country’s teaching profession. This is what informed the study whose core objective was to determine whether teachers’ need for recognition has been adequately met in public secondary schools in Kwale County, Kenya. Using a self-delivered five-point likert scale instrument, data were collected from 255 public secondary school teachers in the county who were randomly selected from a target population of 752 teachers. Data were analysed using arithmetic mean and simple regression analysis at .05 alpha level. The composite mean score for the items in the instrument stood at 2.49 out of a maximum mean score of 5.00. This implied that teachers’ appreciation as measured against the items in the instrument was below average. The relationship between recognition and teacher motivation was statistically significant (t=.298; p=.000). The generated beta (β) coefficient was also statistically significant (β=.546; p=.000). These coefficients implied that the items on recognition captured in the study were reliable predictors of teacher motivation in the study locale. These findings offer useful lessons to teacher managers on how to enhance teacher motivation which is a critical variable in students learning outcomes.