diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/456-replace-distutils.yml b/changelogs/fragments/456-replace-distutils.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..dc70d6f68c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/456-replace-distutils.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+minor_changes:
+  - kubectl.py - replace distutils.spawn.find_executable with shutil.which in the kubectl connection plugin (https://github.com/ansible-collections/kubernetes.core/pull/456).
diff --git a/plugins/connection/kubectl.py b/plugins/connection/kubectl.py
index 1f4dca0765..4a4452ad22 100644
--- a/plugins/connection/kubectl.py
+++ b/plugins/connection/kubectl.py
@@ -171,9 +171,9 @@
         aliases: [ kubectl_verify_ssl ]
 """
 
-import distutils.spawn
 import os
 import os.path
+import shutil
 import subprocess
 
 from ansible.parsing.yaml.loader import AnsibleLoader
@@ -219,14 +219,9 @@ def __init__(self, play_context, new_stdin, *args, **kwargs):
         # Note: kubectl runs commands as the user that started the container.
         # It is impossible to set the remote user for a kubectl connection.
         cmd_arg = "{0}_command".format(self.transport)
-        if cmd_arg in kwargs:
-            self.transport_cmd = kwargs[cmd_arg]
-        else:
-            self.transport_cmd = distutils.spawn.find_executable(self.transport)
-            if not self.transport_cmd:
-                raise AnsibleError(
-                    "{0} command not found in PATH".format(self.transport)
-                )
+        self.transport_cmd = kwargs.get(cmd_arg, shutil.which(self.transport))
+        if not self.transport_cmd:
+            raise AnsibleError("{0} command not found in PATH".format(self.transport))
 
     def _build_exec_cmd(self, cmd):
         """Build the local kubectl exec command to run cmd on remote_host"""