The monkey fell on a power plant transformer and de-energized the whole country.

Kenya Electricity Generation Company (KenGen), Kenya energy company, issued a press release with a report on the incident that led to a power outage in Kenya on June 7, 2016. As it turned out, the cause of the accident was ... a monkey.

The report says that at 11:29 am the monkey climbed onto the roof of the building of the hydroelectric power station Gitaru Power Station, fell from the roof onto a transformer and brought it down. This led to a malfunction of other equipment at the power plant. Due to a surge in voltage of more than 180 MW, power instantly disappeared from the national energy grid, launching a fan-shaped power outage across the country.

Within a few hours, the system’s working capacity was restored, and the power supply resumed normally, reports KenGen Kenya. The nationwide blackout lasted more than three hours.

“KenGen power plants are protected by an electric fence that protects them from wild animals. The company apologizes for this particular incident and promises to find ways to further improve protection at all of our power plants, ”the official statement said.

The monkey itself, which made the accident, survived. She was taken away by nature conservationists from the state organization Kenya Wildlife Service.



Power outages in Kenya occur quite often. Many private companies and the most well-off citizens have long established and used their own electric generators on gasoline.