diff --git a/plugins/in_kafka/CMakeLists.txt b/plugins/in_kafka/CMakeLists.txt
index ede0831f9f8..02e2dc786fb 100644
--- a/plugins/in_kafka/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/plugins/in_kafka/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -3,5 +3,7 @@ set(src
   )
 
 FLB_PLUGIN(in_kafka "${src}" ${KAFKA_LIBRARIES})
-target_include_directories(flb-plugin-in_kafka PUBLIC ${KAFKA_INCLUDEDIR}/librdkafka)
+if(DEFINED KAFKA_INCLUDEDIR)
+  target_include_directories(flb-plugin-in_kafka PUBLIC ${KAFKA_INCLUDEDIR}/librdkafka)
+endif()
 target_link_libraries(flb-plugin-in_kafka -lpthread)
diff --git a/plugins/out_kafka/CMakeLists.txt b/plugins/out_kafka/CMakeLists.txt
index 01c96529b1c..54b14fc2a67 100644
--- a/plugins/out_kafka/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/plugins/out_kafka/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -5,5 +5,7 @@ set(src
   kafka.c)
 
 FLB_PLUGIN(out_kafka "${src}" ${KAFKA_LIBRARIES})
-target_include_directories(flb-plugin-out_kafka PUBLIC ${KAFKA_INCLUDEDIR}/librdkafka)
+if(DEFINED KAFKA_INCLUDEDIR)
+  target_include_directories(flb-plugin-out_kafka PUBLIC ${KAFKA_INCLUDEDIR}/librdkafka)
+endif()
 target_link_libraries(flb-plugin-out_kafka -lpthread)