The country was treated to a countrywide blackout once again on Tuesday evening due to what the Kenya Power Company attributed to a “system disturbance”.

“A power system disturbance has led to loss of electricity supply to parts of Nairobi and adjacent areas,” Kenya Power said in a statement.

Kenyans took to social media under the hashtags #KPLCShutdown and #KenyaPower to react to the countrywide blackout;

“Countywide blackout!! I hope they are not swearing in Kibaki again” one tweeted jokingly.

“The last time this happened, Kenya Power blamed it on a monkey. This afternoon, I met a monkey walking around with intent,” Oliver Mathenge‏ tweeted.

Business as usual

Mathenge was making reference to a similar four-hour countywide blackout that hit the country last year, which Kenya power attributed to interference by a monkey.

Apparently, a monkey climbed on to the roof of Gitaru Power Station. The animal lost its balance and fell on a transformer causing it to shut down. This, in turn, caused a ripple effect with other transformers shutting down as well because of overload.

Well, countrywide blackouts are no longer astonishing in Kenya even as the cost of electric continues ballooning. Interestingly, while Kenyans are forced to contend with high power bills, in Germany consumers are occasionally paid to use power.

On Christmas day, power prices in Germany went negative due to an abundance of power on the grid.