--- title: Monkey in Kenya Causes Nationwide Power Blackout description: A monkey that climbed onto the roof of Kenya's Gitaru Power Station caused a nationwide blackout that lasted for over three hours Tuesday canonical: https://time.com/4361370/monkey-kenya-power-blackout/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-08T15:54:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:33:07.301Z og:title: Monkey Causes Nationwide Power Blackout in Kenya og:description: Now, that's what we call monkey business og:url: https://time.com/4361370/monkey-kenya-power-blackout/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Monkey Causes Nationwide Power Blackout in Kenya twitter:description: Now, that's what we call monkey business twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Monkey Causes Nationwide Power Blackout in Kenya  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jun 8, 2016 3:54 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jun 8, 2016 3:54 PM UTC A [monkey](http://time.com/4309563/monkey-phone-smartphone-hand-china/) that climbed onto the roof of [Kenya’s](http://time.com/4327239/kenya-close-refugee-camp-dadaab/) Gitaru Power Station ended up causing a nationwide [electrical blackout](http://time.com/3949986/1977-blackout-new-york-history/) that lasted for over three hours Tuesday. The [Kenya Electricity Generation Company ](http://www.kengen.co.ke/?version=meter+at+0&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click)(KenGen) explained the rogue animal — who survived the ordeal — fell or jumped on top of a transformer at the hydroelectric plant, triggering the widespread outage. “This morning, a monkey climbed on the roof of Gitaru Power Station and dropped onto a transformer tripping it,” [the company wrote on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/KenGenKenya/posts/700532136716720:0?version=meter+at+0&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click). “This caused other machines at the power station to trip on overload resulting in a loss of more than 180MW from this plant which triggered a national power blackout. The system has since been restored and all our power generating units are operating normally.” The company also apologized for the incident in its [statement](https://www.facebook.com/KenGenKenya/posts/700532136716720:0?version=meter+at+0&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click). “KenGen power installations are secured by electric fencing which keeps away marauding wild animals,” it wrote. “We regret this isolated incident and the company is looking at ways of further enhancing security at all our power plants.” Following its discovery, the monkey was taken in by Kenya Wildlife Services, [according to KenGen](https://www.facebook.com/KenGenKenya/photos/a.511117912324811.1073741831.509190882517514/700532136716720/?type=3&comment%5Fid=700576946712239&comment%5Ftracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4361370/monkey-kenya-power-blackout/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4361370/monkey-kenya-power-blackout/"},"headline":"Monkey Causes Nationwide Power Blackout in Kenya","datePublished":"2016-06-08T15:54:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:33:07.301Z","description":"Now, that's what we call monkey business","url":"https://time.com/4361370/monkey-kenya-power-blackout/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","monkeys","Kenya"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4361370/monkey-kenya-power-blackout/","name":"Monkey Causes Nationwide Power Blackout in Kenya"}}]}] ```