The demolition of a branch of a key supermarket chain, on Saturday, raises a number of questions on government operations.

We agree there is need for bypasses and a road network spacious enough to decongest the highways. But that cannot be done at the expense of established and legitimate businesses.

That it is actually being done, with such bulldozer brutality, illustrates a failure in metropolitan planning.

Vehicular and human population have been growing in leaps, but the motorable space has remained constant. The discordance shows obvious planning gaps, for which legitimate investors are the victims.

Any attempt to find solutions to the road crisis must, however, consider the interests of legitimate businesses along the highways.

Moreover, logic should have shown city planners that Nairobi would grow and more space would be needed to expand public utilities. To have given out some of the space, and issue valid title deeds was wrong.

A traffic count two years ago showed the Nairobi-Thika Highway, for example, carries about 70,000 vehicles per day, the largest in eastern and central Africa for a single road. This count has ballooned during the last two years.

That the Government wants to expand roads through constructing bypasses is a great idea whose time is decades overdue.

Thika Road, for example, is being expanded to meet growing need for more motorable space.

The 45-km project between Nairobi and Thika, a satellite industrial town, has attracted a Sh18.5 billion African Development Bank funding. The current two lanes on either side will be expanded to ten, five for each. Space will be required to accommodate this expansion.

Yet this space is occupied by approved, landmark facilities including Nakumatt, the National Youth Service headquarters, the General Service Unit, Safari Park Hotel, Kenyatta University, Utalii College and Vision Plaza.

Some of the facilities have been standing for decades. Now, the Government says these facilities are on a road reserve, yet they are legitimate structures whose title deeds were duly acquired and buildings approved by relevant Government offices.

This is why Saturday’s demolition of Thika Road branch of Nakumatt, a regional supermarket chain, even with a standing notice to the retail outlet to relocate, raises questions about the conflicting operations of Government.

The Ministry of Works brought down structures along the highway, even though these cannot be said to have been "illegal structures".

The Commissioner of Lands must have validated the title deeds and City Hall must also have approved the transactions and building plans for such massive investments.

Multi-billion shilling structures were destroyed and hundreds of millions more worth of merchandise were ravaged in the dawn raid. At least 500 direct jobs were also lost at Nakumatt alone. Such massive investments must have been put up with the legitimate authority of the Government.

Against such brutality, callousness and massive losses, certain questions need to be asked about the politics of demolition and how targeted structures came to be. Above that, they show how uncoordinated public offices work.

Just who will investors trust to show them safe sites for investment? This is the question the Government must answer.