diff --git a/package/speechd/speechd.mk b/package/speechd/speechd.mk
index 46c0672f59..dee94a6752 100644
--- a/package/speechd/speechd.mk
+++ b/package/speechd/speechd.mk
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ SPEECHD_INSTALL_STAGING = YES
 # speechd source code is released without configure script
 SPEECHD_AUTORECONF = YES
 SPEECHD_DEPENDENCIES = host-pkgconf dotconf libglib2 libsndfile
+SPEECHD_CONF_ENV = ac_cv_prog_HELP2MAN=""
 SPEECHD_CONF_OPTS = --without-kali
 
 # fix missing config.rpath (needed for autoreconf) in the codebase