In Swahili the name Mawe Mbili means 2 stones, referring to two lava ash monoliths, about in height, which rise from a small grassland clearing in the lava badlands. The Elmenteita Badlands are a Holocene Epoch volcanic lava flow. One of the stones has a cavity at the base of it, large enough to sit in and used in times past as a shelter in bad weather for herdsmen looking after cattle in the area.