April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is observed on every April 1 and is all about practical jokes and hoaxes.
Media can be involved with these pranks, that are told until midday (12:00 pm) on April 1, and which may be revealed as such the following day.
In Poland, for instance, April Fool’s Day is taken very seriously and news outlets often cooperate with each other and write the same false stories to make them even more believable.
On April 1, 2023, Kenyan media played prank on the audience which undoubtedly caught most people.
K24 Digital led with a story which left tongues wagging within the country’s political cycles. It told of a high-powered delegation dispatched to Nairobi from the United States in an attempt to have President William Ruto and the opposition leader Raila Odinga work together in a Handshake scenario.
The story sounded super practical going by the fact that the leaders have maintained hardline stances with Raila leading mass action protests against Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza government every Mondays and Thursdays.
It also came just days after both Raila and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua met United States Senator for Delaware Chris Coons in Nairobi.
Nation, under their Nairobi News brand, unleashed a story that, if was true, would see millions of Kenyans earn Ksh10,000 for Indian house crow killed.
Nairobi News played the prank using a fake coast-based Non-Governmental Organization whose non-existent spokesperson lamented about the aggressiveness of the birds and explained the need to have them swept out of the country.
Citizen Digital told of a bold move by the Football Kenya Federation President Nick Mwendwa that hired the former Harambee Stars international striker Dennis Oliech as the new national team’s head coach.
The story came at a time Kenyan football is literally on its death bed and just days after Harambee Stars, under the tutelage of Coach Engin Firat, fell to Iran in an international friendly.
Standard Digital reported that plans were underway to have the former U.S President Barack Obama whose ancestry is Kenya, relocate to the country in June.
That his handlers and the planners of the trip were already thinking of choosing one of the counties among Siaya, Kajiado, Lamu, Mandera and Nyeri for his stay in Kenya.
What’s the origin of Fool’s Day?
It is unclear where April Fool’s Day originated from – but there are many theories surrounding this.
One popular theory is that it began in 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar causing New Year’s Day to move from April 1 to January 1.
Many people still rang in the New Year on April 1, as they weren’t aware of the calendar change, and these people were laughed at and had tricks played on them, as they were ‘fools’.
In Ireland, a long-standing April Fools tradition was to give an important letter to a chosen ‘fool’ and ask them to give it to a certain person.
That person would then read the letter, and ask the fool to pass it on to someone else and so on.
When opened, the letter would read ‘send the fool further’.
In Italy, France and other French speaking areas, the day is called April Fish and a common prank is to attach a paper fish to someone’s back without them noticing.
