diff --git a/Gopkg.lock b/Gopkg.lock
index 90238efb4b..52ae1ac218 100644
--- a/Gopkg.lock
+++ b/Gopkg.lock
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@
 
 [[projects]]
   branch = "master"
-  digest = "1:fb48d4018740c1be15980ba42d2db10af1b5aa42251e7c0f97d4c32ecb24e4f9"
+  digest = "1:4f6afcf4ebe041b3d4aa7926d09344b48d2f588e1f957526bbbe54f9cbb366a1"
   name = "github.com/argoproj/pkg"
   packages = [
     "errors",
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@
     "time",
   ]
   pruneopts = ""
-  revision = "fb13aebbef1cc580a9f5bafa65bdad07fc89d803"
+  revision = "38dba6e98495680ff1f8225642b63db10a96bb06"
 
 [[projects]]
   digest = "1:d8a2bb36a048d1571bcc1aee208b61f39dc16c6c53823feffd37449dde162507"
diff --git a/util/kube/ctl.go b/util/kube/ctl.go
index 3c290a0090..dd8b890d7f 100644
--- a/util/kube/ctl.go
+++ b/util/kube/ctl.go
@@ -239,6 +239,18 @@ func (k KubectlCmd) ApplyResource(config *rest.Config, obj *unstructured.Unstruc
 	return strings.Join(out, ". "), nil
 }
 
+func convertKubectlError(err error) error {
+	errorStr := err.Error()
+	if cmdErr, ok := err.(*argoexec.CmdError); ok {
+		parts := []string{fmt.Sprintf("kubectl failed %s", cmdErr.Cause.Error())}
+		if cmdErr.Stderr != "" {
+			parts = append(parts, cleanKubectlOutput(cmdErr.Stderr))
+		}
+		errorStr = strings.Join(parts, ": ")
+	}
+	return fmt.Errorf(errorStr)
+}
+
 func runKubectl(kubeconfigPath string, namespace string, args []string, manifestBytes []byte, dryRun bool) (string, error) {
 	cmdArgs := append([]string{"--kubeconfig", kubeconfigPath, "-f", "-"}, args...)
 	if namespace != "" {
@@ -267,7 +279,7 @@ func runKubectl(kubeconfigPath string, namespace string, args []string, manifest
 	cmd.Stdin = bytes.NewReader(manifestBytes)
 	out, err := argoexec.RunCommandExt(cmd, config.CmdOpts())
 	if err != nil {
-		return "", fmt.Errorf(cleanKubectlOutput(err.Error()))
+		return "", convertKubectlError(err)
 	}
 	return out, nil
 }
@@ -297,7 +309,7 @@ func (k KubectlCmd) ConvertToVersion(obj *unstructured.Unstructured, group strin
 	cmd.Stdin = bytes.NewReader(manifestBytes)
 	out, err := argoexec.RunCommandExt(cmd, config.CmdOpts())
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf(cleanKubectlOutput(err.Error()))
+		return nil, convertKubectlError(err)
 	}
 	// NOTE: when kubectl convert runs against stdin (i.e. kubectl convert -f -), the output is
 	// a unstructured list instead of an unstructured object