Wananchi walimchagua mbunge.

It follows the common Swahili pattern:

Subject + Verb + Object

• Wananchi = the citizens
• walimchagua = elected him/her
• mbunge = member of parliament / MP

So the sentence is built very much like a simple English sentence.

Wananchi means citizens. The singular is mwananchi, meaning citizen.

This is a human noun, so it follows the usual human singular/plural pattern:

• mwananchi = one citizen
• wananchi = citizens

A useful thing to notice is that the plural begins with wa-, which is very common for plural human nouns in Swahili.

The wa- at the start of the verb is the subject prefix, meaning they.

It agrees with wananchi, which is plural. So:

• wananchi = citizens
• wa- on the verb = they

This agreement is a major feature of Swahili grammar: the verb usually shows who the subject is.

You can split it like this:

wa-li-m-chagu-a

• wa- = they
• -li- = past tense
• -m- = him/her (singular human object)
• -chagu- = choose / elect
• -a = final vowel

So literally it is something like:

they + past + him/her + choose

That is why one Swahili verb can contain information that English often spreads across several words.

-li- is the past tense marker.

So:

• walimchagua = they elected him/her
• wanamchagua = they are electing him/her / they elect him/her
• watamchagua = they will elect him/her

In Swahili, tense is usually built into the verb itself rather than added as a separate word like did.

The -m- is the object marker. Here it means him/her for a singular human object.

Important point: Swahili does not usually distinguish him and her in this form. So -m- can refer to either a man or a woman, depending on context.

So walimchagua means:

• they elected him
• or they elected her

Because in Swahili, the object marker and the full noun can appear together.

So walimchagua mbunge is not strange. It is like saying:

• they elected him, the MP
• or more naturally, they elected the MP

This is especially common when the object is a specific person. The object marker helps show that the speaker has a particular person in mind.

Yes, you could.

But the meaning or feel may shift a little:

• Wananchi walichagua mbunge can sound more like The citizens elected/chose an MP
• Wananchi walimchagua mbunge more strongly points to a specific person, roughly The citizens elected the MP or elected him/her, the MP

In real usage, with a definite human object, the object marker is very common and often preferred.

It means member of parliament, often translated simply as MP.

Its plural is:

• mbunge = MP
• wabunge = MPs

So in this sentence, mbunge is singular.

No. They just happen to look the same.

• In walimchagua, -m- is an object marker meaning him/her
• In mbunge, the m is part of the noun itself

So they are different pieces of grammar, even though they are spelled with the same letter.

Because Swahili usually does not use articles like English the and a/an.

Whether something is understood as the MP or an MP depends on context. In this sentence, the object marker -m- helps make the object sound more specific, so the MP is often a natural translation.

It is possible to wonder that, but if you want to say that clearly in Swahili, a more explicit form is:

Wananchi walimchagua kuwa mbunge.

That means The citizens elected him to be an MP or elected him as MP.

As written, Wananchi walimchagua mbunge is most naturally understood as referring to the MP as the object: The citizens elected the MP / elected him, the MP.