Marauding monkey causes nationwide blackout in Kenya

The whole of Kenya was left without electricity yesterday when a monkey broke into the country's largest power station.

The nationwide blackout, which lasted four hours, was caused after the animal, thought to be a vervet monkey, tripped a transformer at the Gitaru hydroelectric power plant.

The station is the largest in east Africa and is owned and operated by the power producer KenGen.

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In a statement on Facebook, the company confirmed the rogue primate had escaped unhurt.

"Monkey is alive and has been taken in by [Kenya Wildlife Service]," it said. "We regret this isolated incident and the company is looking at ways of further enhancing security at all our power plants."

Businesses were hardest hit by the blackout, according to Business Daily Africa, but some are already prepared for such emergencies. Frequent power outages in Kenya have seen many companies invest in expensive back-up generators.

However, not everybody suffered as a result of the marauding monkey. The World Bank estimates that just 23 per cent of Kenya's 45 million people have access to electricity. "Despite being one of Africa's fastest growing economies, for the majority of Kenyans the power outage wasn't missed," says CNN.