You know warra’m sayin’ ?

They have started flying back to Western capitals but for the whole of December, the ‘summer bunnies’ lit up our social scene.

Welcome to the world of Kenyan students and professionals living especially in Europe and the US and back home every December, sometimes displaying real or imaginary culture shocks.

Some are very decent folks while a laughably weird lot ends up being the antithesis of the ‘cool and uptown’’ mien meant to charm non-have-been-theres with.

Nairobi resident Clifford Oluoch talks of a friend who left the country for the US two years ago but upon his return last month, he could not remember any building or street in Nairobi save for Nation Centre which he calls the ‘White and Black Building.’ “I have no choice but to wait for him here,” says a bemused Oluoch outside the Nation Centre.

Marketer Prya Chana says her family members and friends fly back home a number of times in a year. “It’s like they never left Kenya,” she says.

However, she remembers someone who came back and it was as if her memory had gone blank. “She could not remember where the 20th Century Cinema was although her father’s office has always been there. Another bunny thought that up market Nairobi suburb Karen was near Loresho although she had lived there for most of her life,” recalls Prya who herself has lived abroad for years.

Then there was this visiting bunny who keeps on telling us that he can’t stay out very late because his life insurance runs into millions of dollars and wouldn’t it be disastrous for the US government if anything happened to him?

Those who know the difference between the US government and the American Insurance Group barely suppress their laughter as we drink away the evening at Tamasha Hurlingham, Nairobi.

“It is fine to try be safe but c’mon, we have insurance in Kenya... If anything and with all due respect, the guy grew up in Eastlands,” says Nairobi University student Kevin Ochieng of the bunny.

But perhaps what is intriguing is the sudden change in accent. It is rumoured that a certain boxer toured the US for two weeks and once back here, she was asking reporters “You knaw warra’m sayin’?”

For Vincent Okira, the change in accents doesn’t annoy. However he can’t stand bunnies who “forget” their mother tongue or Kiswahili. Like the one who had been in Australia for two years and wanted him to be a translator back in Western Kenya while the Australian girl he was walking hand in hand was trying very hard to learn Kiluhya.

It has also not been hard to spot a summer-bunny in a club. They love roomy, hanging t-shirts most of them emblazoned with the name of some American city, state or a university. Invariably they will be weighed down by tons of bling while the girls will be in something outrageous.

At Tamasha Hurlingham, one bunny doesn’t remember Kenya currency denominations. Some will ask someone close how much is in their hands and can they use the credit card because it is safer.

“It happens even in the dingiest pubs,” says Okira. And, they don’t take this criticism lying down.

Maureen Owitti, a Kenyan bunny living in Gloucester, UK, agrees that some people fake accents but she insists that most of them, having lived abroad for many years, naturally adopt local accents.

“I studied in Jamaica for two years then moved on to the UK where I have been for five years. You don’t expect my accent to remain unchanged. Do you?” wonders nurse Maureen.

Maureen’s sentiments are also echoed by Susan Akinyi who lives in Leeds, UK.

‘Tony Bro’ or DJ Tony, as he is popularly known, has never been accused of developing an accent but has a problem with the way people back home perceive him. He has lived in Watford, UK, for more than ten years bad can’t understand why some Kenyans think everybody who has lived abroad is Mr Moneybags or a drug dealer.

“When people think you have a lot of money they tend to be fake so that they can win your favour but the truth is that it is easy to fall out with them,” says DJ Tony who runs Trixx Entertainment, a promotion and event-organising company.

Vincent Mosoti ‘Daddy V’ who lives in Atlanta, US, supports DJ Tony, adding that people need not look at them as moneybags but fellow citizens who find time to spend the little that they have saved when they come back to Kenya after years abroad.

“We work really hard out there… there is no time to party much. We only get time to do that when we come back home,” he says. Mosoti adds that after being away for so long, things are bound to change and nobody should ridicule them for not remembering where a street was or where to board a matatu.

Lloyd Onsunga, who also lives in the US, adds that Kenyans should be supportive as a majority of the ‘summer bunnies’ are genuine.

Winrose Oyaro has seen both worlds having studied for her Master’s Degree in London. She has issues with people who fuss about the way summer bunnies dress.

“It is dishonest for some Kenyans to expect you to come back dressed in the same manner you left the country when you have been in another culture for years. Ironically, they are happy to see such dressing on TV,” she says.

In the words of Oyaro, the unduly critical Kenyans should accommodate summer bunnies and perhaps learn from them instead of nursing an inferiority complex of sorts. She is however quick to admit that some bunnies go overboard.

Mike Mariga, a banker in Washington DC, finds it hard to believe that there are people who fake their dressing, accents or even their lifestyles when they come to Kenya.

“The bling and the jerseys are all American dress, which is what we are used to. Most of us have acquired the accents … we don’t even notice it,” he says, adding that he can still speak Swahili and Ekegusii fluently.

May be the world is not a global village. May be it is.