The ruling Jubilee Party has announced that it will not front a candidate for the Migori senatorial by - election.
Addressing the press at the party headquarters in Nairobi on Sunday, the party Secretary General Raphael Tuju said that the decision has emanated from the party management committee.
He added that the same is largely in the interest of the building bridges initiatives spearheaded by President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga, whose Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party is keen on retaining the post.
"The National Management Committee unanimously decided that the party will not field a candidate in the forthcoming by-election,” Tuju was quoted by the Daily Nation.
The seat fell vacant after the death of Senator Ben Oluoch Okello who succumbed to cancer last month, with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) setting the by election for October 8.
A number of candidates have since declared their interest in replacing him on the ODM ticket, in a region considered an opposition bedrock.
These include former Rongo lawmakers Ochilo Ayacko and Dalmas Otieno, former Migori parliamentarian John Dache and businessman Eddy Oketch.
The Orange party national Chair John Mbadi, noted that the IEBC had already since issued a directive that the party submit it's candidate by July 26.