Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi has defended his party's decision to field a candidate for the vacant Kibra parliamentary race.
The party has since approved former area hopeful Eliud Owalo to go for the seat, which has also attracted the interest of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
While the battle is being seen as one between him and his National Super Alliance (NASA) co-principal and ODM boss Raila Odinga, he on Sunday said that it is not the case.
According to the former Deputy Prime Minister, the race is all about proving leadership to the residents of Kibra and not a proxy between party leaders as some would want to put it.
"I am not trying to downplay the importance of Kibra by-election. This is about the leadership of the Kibra Constituency. It is not a proxy battle for party leaders," he said.
Mudavadi made the remarks on K24's Punchline on Sunday night, at only days after the party unveiled Owalo, after handing him a direct nomination.
The seat fell vacant following the death of its former holder Ken Okoth who succumbed to cancer in July, with his ODM party yet to conduct primaries to pick its candidate.
And with the Jubilee Party too yet to declare its candidate for the same, it currently appears like an ODM-ANC war, considering that Owalo decamped from ODM recently.