Monkey causes national power cut in Kenya

The offending monkey is thought to be a vervet like this one (Reuters)
The offending monkey is thought to be a vervet like this one (Reuters)

Kenya's largest power company has apologised after a nationwide power outage -- that sounds straightforward until you come to the culprit, a monkey.

Power was out across the African nation for some time from 11:30am on Tuesday (local time) after a monkey climbed onto the roof of the Gitaru Power Station where it "dropped onto a transformer tripping it".

In a statement, the company said it caused the power station to trip on overload.

"[It] resulted in a loss of more than180MW from this plant which triggered a national power blackout."

The system was put back online shortly afterwards and were operating normally.

From a picture the company posted, it is unclear what kind of monkey it was, but it is likely a native species called a vervet.

Monkey causes national power cut in Kenya

(KenGen / Facebook)

The company "regretted" the incident, saying its power installations have electric fencing around them which "keep away marauding wild animals".

They say it is an isolated incident and are looking at ways to increase security.

But have no fear for the monkey, it made it out of the shocking situation alive and well, the company says, and is in the hands of the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Newshub.