The similarities between Raila Odinga and UK's Jeremy Corbyn

CORD political kingpin Raila Amollo Odinga will be gunning for the presidency on the opposition ticket come 2017, although we don't know what the outcome of negotiations with Musalia Mudavadi of the Amani national congress might be.

This would be the umpteenth time Mr. Odinga will be staking his luck on the most prized trinket of all, the presidency of Kenya. The indefatigable Raila, who seems to be firing on all cylinders just when political pundits are keen to write him off, has a striking resemblance to another politician miles and miles away from Kenya.

Enter Jeremy Corbyn of the UK labor party. Although not quite affable like Mr. Odinga, his background as a onetime trade unionist has similarities to Mr. Odinga's background as a reform fighter, schooled and trained in the political trench warfare during the heydays of the introduction of multi parties in Kenya, that resulted in the successful repeal of the contentious section 2A of the old constitution which ended one party state in Kenya.

But other than their reform credentials, the two have other things in common. Some say they are both intransigent and therefore liabilities to their respective parties.

They both enjoy support which borders on fanaticism from their followers.

A time reaches in politics when people reach the tail end of their careers, not even a magic wand can resuscitate them.

Some have urged the former Prime Minister to exit the scene gracefully and pave way for fresher blood, the likes of honorable Kalonzo Musyoka and Mudavadi et al.

The idea rankles with his close band of supporters who support him and who owe a lot to him politically the likes of honorable Junet Mohammed and James Orengo,  just to name a few.

On this side of the pond, Jeremy Corbyn is having similar problems seeking to put down a series of scorching political fires within his own party.

A section of the labor party feel that Mr. Corbyn has not put forth any meaningful legislative or political agenda, is unelectable and would easily be "minced meat" for the high flying post Brexit prime minister, Theresa May.

Perhaps as a harbinger of things to come, Mr Corbyn was pictured passing a row of empty train seats on a UK virgin passenger train.

According to some quarters, the labor party faces serious hemorrhaging under Mr. Corbyn and would likely face crushing defeat at the hands of the conservatives in the event of a general election.

A section of commentators back in Kenya are of the view that Mr. Odinga's love affair with the average Kenyan voter has run its natural course and could do serious damage to cord's election prospects in 2017.

In the case of Mr. Corbyn, the gloves have come off. He is facing an imminent leadership challenge from labor MP, Owen Smith. The duos have gone head to head in political debates and the verbal sparring between the two has been vicious.

Mr. Odinga and Mr. Corbyn are caught up in an almost “hypnotic trance" of believing their own hype. Whether that will damage their parties and snuff out their political careers remains to be unseen.