Kenya power company says a monkey caused nationwide blackout

Kenya's power generation company says a monkey caused a three-hour nationwide blackout.

The Kenya Electricity Generation Company said in a statement late on Tuesday that a monkey climbed onto the roof of the Gitaru Power Station in central Kenya and fell onto a transformer, tripping it.

The company said this caused other machines in the station to trip, resulting in the loss of 180MW from the plant, triggering a national blackout. The statement did not say whether the monkey survived.

The blackout lasted more than three hours on Tuesday before power was restored.