Monkey survives fall but triggers Nationwide Blackout in Kenya

A nationwide blackout was triggered in Kenya by the fall of a monkey on the transformer
The nationwide blackout that lasted for nearly three hours
The company is looking for different measures to enhance the security of the power plants

In an ill-fated incident that took place on Tuesday, June 7, a nationwide blackout was triggered in Kenya by the fall of a monkey.

The company, Kenya Electricity Generating Company or KenGen, claims that a monkey of the Vervet species climbed onto the roof of the Gitaru Power Station. The monkey in question jumped off the roof of the power station, landing on the transformer. The fall tripped the transformer, causing the other machines to trip on overload as well. It leaded to a loss of over 180MW.

The nationwide blackout that lasted for nearly three hours, proved detrimental for the businesses. There were some houses in Nairobi that complained of power loss even on Wednesday.

The company has posted the image in their Facebook page, KenGen Kenya about the incident with the image of the monkey.

kenGen building in Kenya. Image source: www.esi-africa.com

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In a statement that KenGen issued, the company stated that this accident was an "isolated incident" that they deeply regretted. It also said that the power installations in the hydropower station are " secured by electric fencing which keeps away marauding wild animals".

The company stated that it is looking for different measures to enhance the security of the power plants.

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The vervet monkey survived the fall and was turned over to Kenyan Wildlife Service, the company said. It also uploaded a picture of the culprit on its facebook page.

KenGen is locally known for its high electricity costs. It claims that the system had been restored and is functioning to its normal capacity.

-By Devika Todi, an intern at NewsGram. Twitter: devika_todi

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