diff --git a/kr8s/_api.py b/kr8s/_api.py
index 9f7c5cbd..2fe6d8bb 100644
--- a/kr8s/_api.py
+++ b/kr8s/_api.py
@@ -75,13 +75,9 @@ async def _create_session(self) -> None:
             with contextlib.suppress(RuntimeError):
                 await self._session.aclose()
             self._session = None
-        userauth = None
-        if self.auth.username and self.auth.password:
-            userauth = httpx.BasicAuth(self.auth.username, self.auth.password)
         self._session = httpx.AsyncClient(
             base_url=self.auth.server,
             headers=headers,
-            auth=userauth,
             verify=await self.auth.ssl_context(),
         )
 
@@ -186,9 +182,6 @@ async def open_websocket(
         headers = {"User-Agent": self.__version__, "content-type": "application/json"}
         if self.auth.token:
             headers["Authorization"] = f"Bearer {self.auth.token}"
-        userauth = None
-        if self.auth.username and self.auth.password:
-            userauth = aiohttp.BasicAuth(self.auth.username, self.auth.password)
         url = self._construct_url(version, base, namespace, url)
         kwargs.update(url=url, ssl=await self.auth.ssl_context())
         auth_attempts = 0
@@ -197,7 +190,6 @@ async def open_websocket(
                 async with aiohttp.ClientSession(
                     base_url=self.auth.server,
                     headers=headers,
-                    auth=userauth,
                 ) as session:
                     async with session.ws_connect(**kwargs) as response:
                         yield response
@@ -254,8 +246,6 @@ async def _whoami(self):
             ) as r:
                 data = r.json()
                 return data["status"]["user"]["username"]
-        elif self.auth.username:
-            return f"kubecfg:basicauth:{self.auth.username}"
         elif self.auth.client_cert_file:
             with open(self.auth.client_cert_file, "rb") as f:
                 cert = x509.load_pem_x509_certificate(f.read())
diff --git a/kr8s/_auth.py b/kr8s/_auth.py
index af781426..6f47ae29 100644
--- a/kr8s/_auth.py
+++ b/kr8s/_auth.py
@@ -27,8 +27,6 @@ def __init__(
         self.client_key_file = None
         self.server_ca_file = None
         self.token = None
-        self.username = None
-        self.password = None
         self.namespace = namespace
         self.active_context = None
         self._insecure_skip_tls_verify = False
@@ -182,10 +180,11 @@ async def _load_kubeconfig(self) -> None:
                 )
         if "token" in self._user:
             self.token = self._user["token"]
-        if "username" in self._user:
-            self.username = self._user["username"]
-        if "password" in self._user:
-            self.password = self._user["password"]
+        if "username" in self._user or "password" in self._user:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "username/password authentication was removed in Kubernetes 1.19, "
+                "kr8s doesn't not support this Kubernetes version"
+            )
         if self.namespace is None:
             self.namespace = self._context.get("namespace", "default")
         if "auth-provider" in self._user: