diff --git a/cmd/kubectl/kubectl.go b/cmd/kubectl/kubectl.go
index 09c18cfa209..bd10a8092db 100644
--- a/cmd/kubectl/kubectl.go
+++ b/cmd/kubectl/kubectl.go
@@ -20,9 +20,6 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/component-base/cli"
 	"k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd"
 	"k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/util"
-
-	// Import to initialize client auth plugins.
-	_ "k8s.io/client-go/plugin/pkg/client/auth"
 )
 
 func main() {
diff --git a/pkg/kubeapiserver/authenticator/config.go b/pkg/kubeapiserver/authenticator/config.go
index 2e1b78b80bd..12f4cfaef58 100644
--- a/pkg/kubeapiserver/authenticator/config.go
+++ b/pkg/kubeapiserver/authenticator/config.go
@@ -47,8 +47,6 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/kube-openapi/pkg/spec3"
 	"k8s.io/kube-openapi/pkg/validation/spec"
 
-	// Initialize all known client auth plugins.
-	_ "k8s.io/client-go/plugin/pkg/client/auth"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/serviceaccount"
 )