Kee Kim Swee

Kapitan China Kee Kim Swee (or Kee Kim Sui, also known as Kee Abdullah after he converted to Islam) was one of the prominent and important Chinese (Hainanese) pioneer who settled in Tawau, Sabah. He was appointed as the first customs examiner and revenue collector by the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company in Tawau, 1894. A year later, Tawau's development was entrusted to his hands by the British administration. He became the first Pengulu or Orang Kaya (OKK) in Tawau, Sabah. Tawau (then known as Tanjong) became a modern town under Kee Kim Swee's lead, as he engineered Tawau into a business and commercial area in the early 1900s.

After he died, his son OKK Kee Abu Bakar (died 1953) became his successor as the Penghulu, among his descendants today are his great-grandsons, Sabah politicians Datuk Bahrom (born 1946), Datuk Tawfiq (1963–2018) and Datuk Nizam (born 1966), the sons of Datin Kee Hafsah (his granddaughter through his eldest born child cum son, Kee Sulaiman) as well as former Sabah state secretary from 2000 to 2008, Datuk K.Y. Mustafa (born 1948), the son of Kee Yusof (his grandson through his son, Kee Abu Bakar).