Meya wetu alimkaribisha mgombea mwanamke wa chama chake kwenye mkutano wa jioni.

It can be split like this:

• a- = subject marker for he/she
• -li- = past tense
• -m- = object marker for him/her
• karibisha = welcome / receive / greet

So alimkaribisha means he/she welcomed him/her.

In this sentence:

• Meya wetu is the subject, so a- refers to the mayor.
• mgombea mwanamke is the object, so -m- refers to the female candidate.

This is a very common learner question.

In Swahili, an object marker can appear in the verb even when the full object noun is also stated. This is especially common when the object is:

• a person
• specific
• definite or already identifiable in context

So:

• alimkaribisha mgombea mwanamke... is natural
• the -m- points to the candidate
• the full noun phrase then gives more detail about who that person is

English does not usually do this, so it can feel redundant, but in Swahili it is normal.

Because meya refers to a person, and in Swahili people usually take the agreement pattern of the animate / personal noun class.

So even though meya is a loanword and does not visibly look like a regular Swahili class 1 noun such as mtoto, it still behaves like a person noun for agreement.

That is why you get:

• meya wetu = our mayor

not:

• meya yetu

A useful comparison:

• mtoto wetu = our child
• mwalimu wetu = our teacher
• meya wetu = our mayor

The head noun is mgombea = candidate.

Then mwanamke is added after it to specify that the candidate is female.

So the structure is basically:

• mgombea = candidate
• mgombea mwanamke = female candidate

This works because Swahili often places the main noun first, followed by words that describe or further identify it.

Also, mgombea by itself does not tell you gender, so mwanamke adds that information.

A common alternative is:

• mgombea wa kike = female candidate

Both are understandable; the sentence you were given is perfectly normal.

Because Swahili usually puts the main noun first and modifiers after it.

So instead of English-style female candidate, Swahili often uses a structure more like:

• candidate female

That is why:

• mgombea mwanamke is natural

This follows a broader pattern in Swahili where possessives, adjectives, and many descriptive elements normally come after the noun.

Because the possessive agrees with the noun being possessed, not with the owner.

Here the possessed noun is:

• chama = party

chama belongs to noun class 7, so the possessive form of -ake becomes:

• chake = his/her/its

So:

• chama chake = his party / her party

A key point for English speakers: Swahili does not make a gender distinction here. chake can mean:

• his
• her
• its

depending on context.

Here wa is an associative linker, often translated as of.

So:

• mgombea wa chama chake = candidate of his/her party
• mkutano wa jioni = meeting of the evening, or more naturally evening meeting

This wa changes form depending on noun class, but in these two phrases it happens to be wa in both cases.

So it is not a random extra word; it is doing important linking work between nouns.

No. Swahili possessives like -ake do not distinguish his from her.

So chake can mean:

• his
• her

The context has to tell you which one is meant.

That is very different from English, where you must usually choose one.

There is also a possible interpretation issue in longer phrases like this: depending on context, chama chake could refer to the candidate’s party or, less likely in some situations, to another previously mentioned person’s party. Context normally resolves that.

Yes, katika mkutano is also possible.

kwenye is very commonly used for location, and in this sentence it means something like:

• at the meeting
• in the meeting context

So:

• kwenye mkutano wa jioni = at the evening meeting

katika often feels a little more like in / inside / within, while kwenye is very natural for many places, events, and settings.

For a learner, the safest takeaway is:

• kwenye mkutano = very natural
• katika mkutano = also possible, depending on nuance

Literally, it is:

• mkutano = meeting
• wa jioni = of evening

So word-for-word it is something like:

• meeting of evening

But natural English is:

• evening meeting

This is another example of Swahili using a noun plus a linked phrase where English often prefers an adjective before the noun.

The sentence follows a very typical Swahili order:

• Subject: Meya wetu
• Verb: alimkaribisha
• Object: mgombea mwanamke wa chama chake
• Location / setting phrase: kwenye mkutano wa jioni

So the overall pattern is:

• Subject + Verb + Object + Location/Context

Inside the noun phrases, Swahili usually puts the noun first and then the modifiers after it:

• meya wetu = mayor our
• mgombea mwanamke = candidate female
• mkutano wa jioni = meeting of evening

That noun-first pattern is one of the biggest structural differences from English.

Its core meaning here is welcomed or received warmly.

Depending on context, karibisha can sometimes have related senses such as:

• welcome
• receive
• usher in
• invite in

But in this sentence, welcomed is the most straightforward reading.

So a learner should mainly understand alimkaribisha here as welcomed him/her.