Monkey misstep cuts the power in Kenya

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

The Kenya Electricity Generation Company (KenGen) said in a statement late 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 stated, "power installations are secured by electric fencing which keeps away marauding wild animals," according to BBC.

"We regret this isolated incident and the company is looking at ways of further enhancing security at all our power plants."

The monkey caused other machines in the station to trip, resulting in the loss of 180MW from the plant, triggering a national blackout.

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

KenGen said that its facility is secured, and that this was an isolated incident, adding that the monkey has survived and was taken in by Kenya Wildlife Services, according to BBC.