During land sector forums held around the country, it is easy to appreciate the knowledge gaps at local levels. These gaps are exploited by brokers and insincere public officers at will.

Confused by the apparent sophistry and inaccessibility of county public officers, service-seekers resort to unorthodox methods for solutions. Many go to great lengths and pay heavily to identify brokers or friends to intercede.

Having identified this problem through its regular scorecard surveys, the Land Development and Governance Institute set out to address the gap through land clinics.

These are open public forums organised for citizens who seek solutions to land issues. In the forums, land experts provide answers to specific problems for free.

The clinics are simple. After opening protocols by respective county government officials, participating members of the public are guided to specialised desks.

The first desk is dedicated to general enquiries. It also directs participants to other desks, depending on the nature of the problem.

The desk on survey, sub-divisions and boundary disputes deals with the mundane issues of the process and costs of subdivision surveys, maps and resolving simple boundary disputes.

The desk dedicated to planning addresses matters such as the process and costs of planning, change of user and acquisition of Nema permits for development projects.

The fourth, and usually busiest, desk handles matters relating to registration of title to land. It helps to clarify the process and costs relating to registration of documents, obtaining official searches, transferring land, succession on death, compulsory acquisition, as well as rates and rents.

The respective desks are manned by technical experts from the institute with qualifications and experience in surveying, land economics, law, planning and environmental science. Most of them are also familiar with the processes of county planning and survey, as well as land registries.

The institute officers, however, man the desks together with public officers from the county and national governments such as the County Land Registrar, the County Surveyor, the County Planner and the County Land Officer, who usually also doubles up as the valuer.

Governors or their representatives, the county executive committee member in charge of land and the chief officer in charge of land provide patronage to the forums in order to respond to any policy and executive-related enquiries.

UNEXPECTED RESULTS

The clinics, which have so far been organised in Machakos and Kajiado counties and will also cover Kiambu in the initial phase, may be scaled up countrywide if successful.

They have had very good results so far, with all manner of issues fielded and answered. Where follow-ups to some issues are necessary, participants are referred to specific officers in the county land offices.

But I discuss these clinics here for the unexpected results they have returned, beyond the objective of bridging the public knowledge gaps.

First, the free open nature of the forums has brought service-seekers face-to-face with the public officers they may have for a long time desired to meet without luck.

Rubbing shoulders freely with a county-based land registrar or surveyor and directly asking questions without having to go through layers of clerks or secretaries has been fulfilling for most.

Those who attend the clinics have appreciated that some of these officers are, after all quite likeable and approachable. The officers are, in return, humbled by the simplicity of the land issues that hold back many families from moving their transactions in land offices.

With time, such direct contact could deal a big blow to cases of corruption, which is usually fuelled by the perceived inaccessibility of public officers.

In addition, the clinics are helping to promote familiarity and purpose between officers of the new county governments and the continuing officers of the National Government. This is good for policy planning and land sector service delivery.

Yet, these unexpected but helpful outputs have been achieved through fairly humble costs. I suggest that counties consider organising similar forums routinely to demystify land office operations and promote familiarity between citizens and county public officers.

Opinion contribution: Daily Nation, Friday 2nd May, 2014