diff --git a/extensions/kubernetes-client/runtime-internal/pom.xml b/extensions/kubernetes-client/runtime-internal/pom.xml
index 3bc718a6d24b8f..104fdb101e44cd 100644
--- a/extensions/kubernetes-client/runtime-internal/pom.xml
+++ b/extensions/kubernetes-client/runtime-internal/pom.xml
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
         <dependency>
             <groupId>io.fabric8</groupId>
             <artifactId>kubernetes-client</artifactId>
+            <scope>provided</scope> <!-- we don't want this ending up on the runtime classpath -->
         </dependency>
     </dependencies>
 
diff --git a/extensions/kubernetes-client/runtime/pom.xml b/extensions/kubernetes-client/runtime/pom.xml
index c1dfd27a9f543f..7b6fb3849551e0 100644
--- a/extensions/kubernetes-client/runtime/pom.xml
+++ b/extensions/kubernetes-client/runtime/pom.xml
@@ -26,6 +26,10 @@
             <groupId>io.quarkus</groupId>
             <artifactId>quarkus-jackson</artifactId>
         </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>io.fabric8</groupId>
+            <artifactId>kubernetes-client</artifactId>
+        </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.graalvm.nativeimage</groupId>
             <artifactId>svm</artifactId>