diff --git a/cmd/kubectl/BUILD b/cmd/kubectl/BUILD
index 35f502bd7d0..3e361cdd21d 100644
--- a/cmd/kubectl/BUILD
+++ b/cmd/kubectl/BUILD
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ go_library(
         "//vendor/github.com/spf13/pflag:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/util/flag:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/util/logs:go_default_library",
+        "//vendor/k8s.io/client-go/plugin/pkg/client/auth:go_default_library",
     ],
 )
 
diff --git a/cmd/kubectl/kubectl.go b/cmd/kubectl/kubectl.go
index 5c89e669bb7..5ca950ed4b9 100644
--- a/cmd/kubectl/kubectl.go
+++ b/cmd/kubectl/kubectl.go
@@ -28,6 +28,9 @@ import (
 	utilflag "k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/util/flag"
 	"k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/util/logs"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/cmd"
+
+	// Import to initialize client auth plugins.
+	_ "k8s.io/client-go/plugin/pkg/client/auth"
 )
 
 func main() {