Dutch King Willem-Alexander, during his official visit to Kenya, revealed that he once worked for the Kenyan government as a pilot for the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), assisting in the fight against poachers.
Speaking at a special state banquet hosted in his honour alongside Queen Máxima on Tuesday, the King surprised attendees with an anecdote about his connection to Africa, and Kenya in particular. "My love for Africa was instilled in me at a young age by my father, who spent ten years of his childhood in what was then Tanganyika (now Tanzania).
I personally became familiar with this part of Africa, and Kenya in particular, in the 1980s and 1990s," the King stated. "First as a pilot for AMREF Flying Doctors and later as a pilot for the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), where my work included protecting elephants from poachers in Meru National Park," he added.
President William Ruto and First Lady Rachel Ruto(right) host King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima(left) of the Netherlands for a state banquet at State House Nairobi,March 18, 2025.
