Often located within sacred forests, a kaya is considered to be an intrinsic source of ritual power and the origin of cultural identity;[1][2] it is also a place of prayer for members of the Mijikenda ethnic group.

[5] Eleven of the approximately 60 separate makaya have been grouped together and inscribed as the Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

[11] There are specific rules that visitors must adhere to when visiting Kaya Kinondo, including a dress code, no disturbing of the natural flaura, no photography, no speaking too loudly, and no fondling one another.

[7] Mijikenda is a word that refers specifically to the nine original sub-ethnic groups and their corresponding makaya settlements, including the A'Giriama, A'Kauma, A'Chonyi, A'Kambe, A'Dzihana, A'Rihe, A'Rahai, A'Duruma, and A'Digo.

But the ten initial makaya could also be concentrate in these areas largely due to the security it provided from the surrounding outsider settlements of the Swahili, the Waata, the Kwavi, and the Wasegeju.

Ultimately, by the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, these ten initial settlements had been largely deserted by the Mijikenda peoples as they migrated to different regions and established succeeding makaya.

[7] Many makaya were originally fortified villages of various ethnic groups, including the Digo, Chonyi, Kambe, Duruma, Kauma, Ribe, Rabai, Jibana, and Giriama peoples.

[12] Additionally, some archaeologists believe that the makaya were established in this area beginning in the ninth century, possibly making them even older than the Swahili coastal settlements.

[9] The conservation of the makaya has been a difficult task for the modern day Mijikenda community and other locals, due to environmental threats and a lack of adequate preservation policy.

[7] Additionally, one of the inadequate conservation policies created is entitled the Antiquities and Monuments Act of 1983, which aimed to protect Kenyan heritage but falls short as it is open to interpretation.

[7] The Krapf Memorial Museum in Rabai created a Kaya replica so that non-Mijikenda visitors, who are not allowed to physically enter the makaya, would be able to engage with the historical site at a distance.

For each of these kaya, Mutoro and his team embarked using a closed traverse method in order to map its boundaries and several tools such as ranging poles, an alidade, a plane table, a plumb bob, a compass, and a thirty-meter tape.

For example, at the Singwaya site they planned to excavate the midden, also known as the dzala, but had to avoid the vikango, or kaya grave posts, by subdividing the area into small 1 x 1 meter squares.