Monkey Causes Nationwide Blackout in Kenya

A nationwide electrical blackout in Kenya on Tuesday was claimed to have been caused by a monkey who tripped a transformer at a hydropower plant, Kenya's biggest power producer KenGen revealed on Wednesday.

Over 180 megawatts of power were lost after the monkey fell on a transformer at the Gitaru hydroelectric power station and tripped the transformer. The slip caused a blackout across Kenya that lasted nearly four hours. Some homes in Nairobi still had not had their power restored on Wednesday.

During the outage, businesses were heavily impacted as lights, air conditioning and internet were knocked out across the nation.

KenGen told the Business Daily Africa that the situation was isolated, and that their power centers are secured by electric fences that typically deter wild animals from entering.

“KenGen power installations are secured by electric fencing, which keeps away marauding wild animals,” the company said. “We regret this isolated incident and the company is looking at ways of further enhancing security at all our power plants.”

The animal survived it’s monkey business and was captured by wildlife service officials. It appears to be a Vervet, with white fur around it’s face.

KenGen also posted a photo of the mischievous primate perched on the transformer.