Is shisha really that important?

That snark who writes for the Nation on Saturday has declared a war on "shisha girls." Her rallying call to all women, whether from "Estlando" or from the other right side of the economic tracks, is to quit the shisha life and watch their lives improve immeasurably, perhaps even with a "prince charming" walking into their lives. I do not wish to dwell on the ill-argued screed she penned; instead, I ask, why is the screed trending on social media as the crisis in the coffee sector continues to bite?

The Kenya coffee sector, together with tea, wheat, maize and flowers, was the mainstay of the agriculture sector, employing hundreds of thousands, both directly and indirectly, contributing billions in foreign exchange, flying Kenya's flag high in foreign markets. It is a pale shadow of its former self. More and more coffee plantations are being turned into concrete jungles as the real estate sector, keeping pace with the general rate of infrastructure development, heats up.

It shouldn't be surprising that many Kenyans on social media, with time on their hands, are more interested in the vile-minded musings of a young woman with a massive chip on her shoulder, than the decrepit policies that have brought Kenyan commercial agriculture to its knees. It is not just coffee or tea; the miraa sector is undergoing severe turbulence because of drugs' policies in the European Union; the cut flower sector is also facing stiff challenges because of European Union policies. Cotton and pyrethrum have already faced weakening policies and been decimated in the bargain.

An online friend whose views I frequently and vehemently disagree with laments that we are no longer able to discuss matters of national importance because, for the most part, most of us have strongly held opinions that are uninformed by facts or data. I think the reason why we are incapable of holding these discussions is because the media stage has been captured by the likes of the anti-shisha screed's author. He puerile musings are what sell ad space. She only has competition from the political opinion-makers, if that. But obscure questions about how the coffee sector has been hijacked by murderous cartels no longer contribute to the public discourse that made Kenya the envy of many in the past.

Coffee, tea, timber, pyrethrum, cotton, wheat, maize, cut flowers and beef built this country. The sectors continue to muddle along. The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries continues to be embroiled in one controversy after another. Agriculture's contribution to our balance of payments continues to be significant. But if the policy Sahara spreads, agriculture will be the source of great social and economic unrest and even greater political instability. By then, all the anti-shisha-women screeds will have done nothing more but to turn us into puerile-minded harridans - just like that woman.