Matayos is a cross-roads trading centre, formed from the confluence of dirt-roads that serve the hinter-regions of Funyula, Mulwanda, Namboboto to the south, and eLugulu, Nasewa sugar-belt and Nambale district headquarters to the North.

Matayos township at Lwanya area, is the administrative seat of Matayos Division in Busia County which have three location namely Nasewa, lwanya and Nangoma, and has been administered by a divisional officer continuously since the year 1990, when it was carved by presidential decree out of the larger Nambale Division of the former Busia District.

Matayos is well served by streams and bisected by the River Sio as it flows form Mount Elgon toward Lake Victoria.

Matayos is hilly to the south-east, with the land generally slanting to its lowest points in the Sio swamp, and rising again as it sprawls towards the international border with Uganda.

Elderly residents recount that the man whose land was transformed into the public forum (baraza) seat of the colonial Chief's, was named Matayo, baptized as such by Italian missionaries of the early 20th century.

The Catholics run their affairs from the eastern end at Lwanya, while the Anglicans have made Busende to the west their local fiefdom.

With the establishment of farmers co-operatives in the 1950s and sixties, Matayos was one of the early townships to host a cotton seed distribution store and a milk-collection centre.

Matayos area has been rapidly influenced by national economic and development policy, with efforts aimed at literacy, basic healthcare and water provision.

Located some sixteen kilometers away from the international border, blessed with an abundance of construction materials (sand from the Sio and stones from the Nangoma, Ganjala, Odiado hills) and served by one of Kenya's main highways, Matayos was viewed as a favorite place to become the headquarter of Busia, away from the insecurity and hustle-and-bustle of the Busia border town.

L also former minister of labour Honorable Philip Masinde and the late Christopher Makokha first member of Parliament Busia country.