A three-hour nationwide blackout in Kenya was found to have been caused by a monkey, the national power company said.

The Kenya Electricity Generation Company said a wandering primate climbed on to the roof of Gitaru Power Station in central Kenya and fell on to 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 company insisted its facility is secured with an electric fence and this was an isolated incident.

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