diff --git a/core/invoker/src/main/resources/application.conf b/core/invoker/src/main/resources/application.conf
index b5187563c26..0f59dd64b7d 100644
--- a/core/invoker/src/main/resources/application.conf
+++ b/core/invoker/src/main/resources/application.conf
@@ -77,7 +77,6 @@ whisk {
       key: "openwhisk-role"
       value: "invoker"
     }
-
     # Enables forwarding to remote port via a local random port. This mode is mostly useful
     # for development via Standalone mode
     port-forwarding-enabled = false
@@ -87,6 +86,12 @@ whisk {
     #  2. OR yaml formatted multi line string. See multi line config support https://github.com/lightbend/config/blob/master/HOCON.md#multi-line-strings
     #
     #pod-template =
+
+    # Set this optional string to be the namespace that the invoker should target for adding pods. This allows the invoker to run in a namesapce it doesn't have API access to but add pods to another namespace. See also https://github.com/apache/openwhisk/issues/4711
+    # When not set the underlying client may pickup the namesapce from the kubeconfig or via system property setting.
+    # See https://github.com/fabric8io/kubernetes-client#configuring-the-client for more information.
+    # action-namespace = "ns-actions"
+
   }
 
   # Timeouts for runc commands. Set to "Inf" to disable timeout.
diff --git a/core/invoker/src/main/scala/org/apache/openwhisk/core/containerpool/kubernetes/KubernetesClient.scala b/core/invoker/src/main/scala/org/apache/openwhisk/core/containerpool/kubernetes/KubernetesClient.scala
index 87a9a598498..cae0062184a 100644
--- a/core/invoker/src/main/scala/org/apache/openwhisk/core/containerpool/kubernetes/KubernetesClient.scala
+++ b/core/invoker/src/main/scala/org/apache/openwhisk/core/containerpool/kubernetes/KubernetesClient.scala
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ case class KubernetesClientConfig(timeouts: KubernetesClientTimeoutConfig,
                                   invokerAgent: KubernetesInvokerAgentConfig,
                                   userPodNodeAffinity: KubernetesInvokerNodeAffinity,
                                   portForwardingEnabled: Boolean,
+                                  actionNamespace: Option[String] = None,
                                   podTemplate: Option[ConfigMapValue] = None)
 
 /**
@@ -93,11 +94,13 @@ class KubernetesClient(
     with ProcessRunner {
   implicit protected val ec = executionContext
   implicit protected val am = ActorMaterializer()
-  implicit protected val kubeRestClient = new DefaultKubernetesClient(
-    new ConfigBuilder()
+  implicit protected val kubeRestClient = {
+    val configBuilder = new ConfigBuilder()
       .withConnectionTimeout(config.timeouts.logs.toMillis.toInt)
       .withRequestTimeout(config.timeouts.logs.toMillis.toInt)
-      .build())
+    config.actionNamespace.foreach(configBuilder.withNamespace)
+    new DefaultKubernetesClient(configBuilder.build())
+  }
 
   private val podBuilder = new WhiskPodBuilder(kubeRestClient, config.userPodNodeAffinity, config.podTemplate)