Nature
PUBLISHED
One tiny monkey is the culprit behind a nationwide blackout in Kenya.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.The monkey, which appears to be a vervet monkey, climbed on top of a roof at the Gitaru Hydroelectric Power Station and dropped onto one of its transformers on Tuesday morning. The monkey's fall managed to cause the transformer to trip, leading to a 180-megawatt loss of power. Much of the country remained without electricity for nearly four hours.
“KenGen power installations are secured by electric fencing which keeps away marauding wild animals,” the power supplier said in a statement on Facebook. They added that they are looking into other ways of further enhancing security and monkey-proofing their plants.
According to Kenyan news, the whole debacle cost the country billions of Kenyan shillings, which would equate to more than one million dollars.
It wasn’t all bad news though. The monkey managed to survive its dramatic morning and is now in the care of the Kenya Wildlife Service.
