diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6939be2c..1b2b5e9a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ It supports various backends including:
 - [Doppler](https://doppler.com/)
 - CredHub(Coming soon)
 - Pulumi State
-- Kubernetes secrets
+- Kubernetes
 
 - Use `vals eval -f refs.yaml` to replace all the `ref`s in the file to actual values and secrets.
 - Use `vals exec -f env.yaml -- <COMMAND>` to populate envvars and execute the command.
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ Please see the [relevant unit test cases](https://github.com/helmfile/vals/blob/
 - [1Password Connect](#1password-connect)
 - [Doppler](#doppler)
 - [Pulumi State](#pulumi-state)
-- [Kubernetes secrets](#kubernetes-secrets)
+- [Kubernetes](#kubernetes)
 
 Please see [pkg/providers](https://github.com/helmfile/vals/tree/master/pkg/providers) for the implementations of all the providers. The package names corresponds to the URI schemes.
 
@@ -724,9 +724,9 @@ Examples:
 - `ref+pulumistateapi://aws-native_s3_Bucket/my-bucket/outputs/tags.%23(key==SomeKey).value?project=my-project&stack=my-stack`
 - `ref+pulumistateapi://kubernetes_storage.k8s.io__v1_StorageClass/gp2-encrypted/inputs/metadata.name?project=my-project&stack=my-stack`
 
-### Kubernetes secrets
+### Kubernetes
 
-Fetch value from a Kubernetes secret:
+Fetch value from a Kubernetes:
 
 - `ref+k8s://API_VERSION/KIND/NAMESPACE/NAME/KEY[?kubeConfigPath=<path_to_kubeconfig>&kubeContext=<kubernetes context name>]`
 
diff --git a/pkg/providers/k8s/k8s.go b/pkg/providers/k8s/k8s.go
index e923f093..06f0104b 100644
--- a/pkg/providers/k8s/k8s.go
+++ b/pkg/providers/k8s/k8s.go
@@ -21,24 +21,32 @@ type provider struct {
 	KubeContext    string
 }
 
-func New(l *log.Logger, cfg api.StaticConfig) (*provider, error) {
+func New(l *log.Logger, cfg api.StaticConfig) (*provider) {
 	p := &provider{
 		log: l,
 	}
+	var err error
 
-	kubeConfig, err := getKubeConfig(cfg)
+	p.KubeConfigPath, err = getKubeConfigPath(cfg)
 	if err != nil {
-		p.log.Debugf("Unable to get a valid Kubeconfig path: %s\n", err)
-		return nil, err
+		p.log.Debugf("vals-k8s: Unable to get a valid kubeConfig path: %s", err)
+		return nil
 	}
 
-	p.KubeConfigPath = kubeConfig
-	p.KubeContext = getKubeContext(cfg)
+	p.KubeContext, err = getKubeContext(cfg)
+	if err != nil {
+		p.log.Debugf("vals-k8s: Unable to get a valid kubeContext: %s", err)
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	if p.KubeContext == "" {
+		p.log.Debugf("vals-k8s: kubeContext was not provided. Using current context.")
+	}
 
-	return p, nil
+	return p
 }
 
-func getKubeConfig(cfg api.StaticConfig) (string, error) {
+func getKubeConfigPath(cfg api.StaticConfig) (string, error) {
 	// Use kubeConfigPath from URI parameters if specified
 	if cfg.String("kubeConfigPath") != "" {
 		if _, err := os.Stat(cfg.String("kubeConfigPath")); err != nil {
@@ -118,11 +126,11 @@ func (p *provider) GetStringMap(path string) (map[string]interface{}, error) {
 }
 
 // Return an empty Kube context if none is provided
-func getKubeContext(cfg api.StaticConfig) string {
+func getKubeContext(cfg api.StaticConfig) (string, error) {
 	if cfg.String("kubeContext") != "" {
-		return cfg.String("kubeContext")
+		return cfg.String("kubeContext"), nil
 	}
-	return ""
+	return "", nil
 }
 
 // Build the client-go config using a specific context
@@ -136,10 +144,6 @@ func buildConfigWithContextFromFlags(context string, kubeconfigPath string) (*re
 
 // Fetch the object from the Kubernetes cluster
 func getObject(namespace string, name string, kubeConfigPath string, kubeContext string, ctx context.Context) (map[string][]byte, error) {
-	if kubeContext == "" {
-		fmt.Printf("vals-k8s: kubeContext was not provided. Using current context.\n")
-	}
-
 	config, err := buildConfigWithContextFromFlags(kubeContext, kubeConfigPath)
 
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/pkg/stringmapprovider/stringmapprovider.go b/pkg/stringmapprovider/stringmapprovider.go
index 28e2a39d..d0923a61 100644
--- a/pkg/stringmapprovider/stringmapprovider.go
+++ b/pkg/stringmapprovider/stringmapprovider.go
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ func New(l *log.Logger, provider api.StaticConfig) (api.LazyLoadedStringMapProvi
 	case "gkms":
 		return gkms.New(l, provider), nil
 	case "k8s":
-		return k8s.New(l, provider)
+		return k8s.New(l, provider), nil
 	}
 
 	return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed initializing string-map provider from config: %v", provider)
diff --git a/pkg/stringprovider/stringprovider.go b/pkg/stringprovider/stringprovider.go
index cb8e0af7..8a0a35b9 100644
--- a/pkg/stringprovider/stringprovider.go
+++ b/pkg/stringprovider/stringprovider.go
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ func New(l *log.Logger, provider api.StaticConfig) (api.LazyLoadedStringProvider
 	case "gkms":
 		return gkms.New(l, provider), nil
 	case "k8s":
-		return k8s.New(l, provider)
+		return k8s.New(l, provider), nil
 	}
 
 	return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed initializing string provider from config: %v", provider)
diff --git a/vals.go b/vals.go
index 8d48df20..efb07195 100644
--- a/vals.go
+++ b/vals.go
@@ -251,7 +251,8 @@ func (r *Runtime) prepare() (*expansion.ExpandRegexMatch, error) {
 			p := gkms.New(r.logger, conf)
 			return p, nil
 		case ProviderK8s:
-			return k8s.New(r.logger, conf)
+			p := k8s.New(r.logger, conf)
+			return p, nil 
 		}
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("no provider registered for scheme %q", scheme)
 	}