Jaji na diwani walihudhuria hafla ya shule katika wilaya yetu jana.

Because the subject is Jaji na diwani — the judge and the councillor — which means two people. In Swahili, when two singular nouns are joined by na (and), the verb agrees with the whole plural subject.

So:

• wa- = plural subject marker for people
• -li- = past tense
• hudhuria = attend

That is why you get walihudhuria = they attended.

A useful breakdown is:

• wa- = they (people plural subject marker)
• -li- = past tense
• -hudhuria = attend

So walihudhuria literally means something like they-past-attend.

This is a very common Swahili verb pattern:

• subject marker + tense marker + verb stem

For example:

• walifika = they arrived
• walisoma = they studied
• walihudhuria = they attended

Each noun is singular by itself:

• jaji = judge
• diwani = councillor / council member

They are connected by na (and), so together they form a plural subject. Swahili does not need to change both nouns into plural forms just because the whole subject is plural. English does the same thing:

• the judge and the councillor attended...

Each noun is singular, but the verb is plural because there are two people.

Here na means and.

So:

• Jaji na diwani = the judge and the councillor

Be careful, because na can also mean with in other contexts, depending on the sentence. But in this sentence, it is simply joining two nouns, so and is the natural meaning.

This is a noun phrase made of:

• hafla = event / ceremony / function
• ya = of
• shule = school

So hafla ya shule literally means event of school, which English naturally expresses as the school event or a school event.

The word ya is a connector that often corresponds to of in English. It links hafla with shule.

Because the connector must agree with the noun it belongs to — here, hafla.

In Swahili, these of-type connectors change form depending on noun class. With hafla, the correct form is ya.

So:

• hafla ya shule = school event
• not hafla wa shule
• not hafla la shule

This agreement system is a very important part of Swahili grammar.

Because the possessive our has to agree with the noun it describes.

• wilaya = district
• yetu = our (agreeing with the noun class of wilaya)

So:

• wilaya yetu = our district

Swahili possessives are not one fixed word. They change form depending on the noun class:

• mtoto wetu = our child
• watoto wetu = our children
• shule yetu = our school
• wilaya yetu = our district

So yetu is the correct agreement form here.

Katika means in, at, or within, depending on context.

So:

• katika wilaya yetu = in our district

It introduces a location phrase. In this sentence, it tells you where the school event took place.

Compared with some other location words:

• katika often sounds a bit more formal or neutral
• kwenye can also sometimes be used for at/in/on, depending on context

But in this sentence, katika wilaya yetu is perfectly natural.

Jana means yesterday, and it is a time expression. In Swahili, time words are very often placed at the end of the sentence.

So:

• ...katika wilaya yetu jana = ...in our district yesterday

That said, Swahili word order can be somewhat flexible. You could move jana earlier for emphasis, but the end position is very common and natural.

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

So nouns such as:

• jaji
• diwani
• hafla
• shule
• wilaya

do not automatically come with separate words meaning the or a.

Whether you understand them as a judge, the judge, a school event, or the school event depends on context. That is completely normal in Swahili.

The verb walihudhuria does not need an object marker here because the object is stated directly after the verb:

• walihudhuria hafla ya shule
• they attended the school event

In Swahili, object markers are possible in some contexts, but they are not required every time there is an object noun. When the object is clearly named right after the verb, leaving out the object marker is often the normal choice.

Yes, to some extent. The basic order here is:

• Subject: Jaji na diwani
• Verb: walihudhuria
• Object: hafla ya shule
• Location: katika wilaya yetu
• Time: jana

That basic order is very natural. But Swahili allows some flexibility, especially with time and place expressions.

For example, you may also hear structures where jana comes earlier. However, the given sentence is a standard, clear way to say it.

Yes. In Swahili, every noun belongs to a noun class, even if its form does not obviously change.

Words like hafla, shule, and wilaya may look unchanged, but they still control agreement in other words around them. That is why you get forms like:

• hafla ya shule
• wilaya yetu

So even when the noun itself does not show an obvious prefix, noun class still matters because agreement markers around it must match.