The two men standing in front are Sir Ali bin Salim (L) and pioneer colonial administrator John Ainsworth.
The photo was taken in the 1920s.
Besides being an administrator, Ainsworth is among those who oversaw the establishment of Nairobi and was indeed one of its major land owners. He had large tracts of land around the area near present-day Nairobi National Museum (until the early 90s there was a popular club in that area called Ainsworth aka Boomerang, which was named after the man).
On his part, Sir Ali bin Salim was the Liwali (Governor) of Mombasa. Knighted by the British in 1929, ten years after he had been nominated to Kenya’s Legislative Council as the Arab representative, he took over the Governorship from his father, Salim bin Khalfan.
Sir Ali was keen to develop modern education in Mombasa. He oversaw the establishment of schools for locals at the coast. He had seen education as key to the development of his subjects. Indeed, he had sent one of his own sons to England for studies.
However, the schools he founded in Mombasa taught Islamic studies and this was a major disadvantage to its students later on as they could neither speak nor write in English.
Some also saw him as the sellout who gave away natives’ land and property in Mombasa to the colonial government.
Moreover, it was Sir Ali - seen in the second pic (seated) in earlier years as the Liwali of Mambrui - who was used by the British to press locals to accept that slave trade at the coast was no more.
The locals were confused.
First of all, the British had proclaimed slaves - the so-called WaFrere, as free. Secondly, in exchange for the slaves’ freedom, the Europeans had compensated former Arab slave owners with money. Finally, some freed WaFrere were hired by European masters as labourers.
Were the British now not slave owners, having “bought” the slaves from their previous masters, Arabs demanded to know from their Liwali.
One can learn more about post-1900 Mombasa, and about Sir Ali, after whom Sir Ali Muslim Sports Club is named, from the book, Sir Ali bin Salim And The Making of Mombasa, by Judy Aldrick.
Sir Ali retired from administrative duties in 1931.