Kwifor is the regulatory society of the Fondom, and it is executive and judicial at once — a branch of titled commoners, the bukum, singular nkum. Commoners here means everyone who is not of the royal family, which is to say almost everybody.
It kept law and internal security. Grave matters — murder, arson, destruction of property, aggravated theft — went to the Fon, but he judged them in consultation with Kwifor rather than by himself.
And Kwifor is a branch of kingmakers: it takes part in choosing the Fon. A body that helps decide who wears the office is a real check on whoever holds it.
It is worth saying plainly, because outsiders describing African kingship rarely do: the Bafut system was built with a brake in it, deliberately, from the beginning.