![[PHOTOS] Royal affair: King Willem, Queen Maxima in Kenya for State visit](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.radioafrica.digital%2Fimage%2F2025%2F03%2Ffdace6bd-f1d2-4a51-915c-15030b655aea.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands has reminisced about his time at the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).
He went down memory lane to the time he worked as a KWS pilot at the Meru National Park, protecting elephants from poachers.
Speaking at a state banquet on Tuesday, he said he got to know about Kenya in the 1980s and 1990s.
The first time he was a pilot for the African Medical Research & Education Foundation (AMREF), flying doctors and later as a pilot for KWS.
"If I even started to think back, first of all, the only pilot license I ever had was not a Dutch it was a Kenyan license," he said.
"The number was Y2294-PL, issued to me by Gladys, who had an office on the first floor, the first office on the left, in 1989."
He recalled that he got the license in 1989.
He said seeing Kenya from the air is "simply magic", with the lights and the colours.
King Willem Alexander however said seeing Kenya from the ground is even more impressive.
"It is there you experience the incredible power of the people who live and work in this land," he said.
King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima are in the country for a three-day state visit.
This visit is the second of its nature in Africa.
"My love of Africa was passed down to me at a young age by my father who spent 10 years of his childhood in then Tanganyika - Tanzania," he said.
According to the Royal House of the Netherlands, King Willem Alexander obtained his Private Pilot’s License (Second Class) in 1985.
This was followed by his Commercial Pilot’s Licence (with an Instrument Rating) in 1987.
While studying he went on to obtain his theoretical B1/B2 licence. This enabled him to fly as a volunteer in Kenya for AMREF and KWS.
In 1989 King Willem-Alexander obtained a supplementary licence to fly multi-engine jet aircraft.
He also has his Military Pilot’s Licence, which was presented to him by his grandfather Prince Bernhard in 1994.
The King earned his Airline Transport Pilot Licence in 2001.
To keep in practice, he occasionally flies as a guest pilot for KLM Cityhopper.
Until mid-2017 he flew either the government aeroplane – registration PH-KBX – or a Fokker 70 from the regular fleet.
In mid-2017 the King trained to fly the Boeing 737. He obtained his licence in June 2017, allowing him to continue flying as a guest pilot with KLM.
