Until recently, almost all charity organisations in Kenya were from the West.

But now, some relief organisations from the Gulf and Middle East countries have started to emerge on the scene, and some stand accused of being a front for terrorists.

In the emergence of humanitarian agencies from non-Western states, some Kenyans see necessity, the rising poverty and the stringent conditions the West have put on their aid.

The shady charities could be stepping in to fill the gap created by retreating Western agencies.

Dr Moustafa Hassouna, a senior lecturer at the Institute of of Diplomacy and International Studies at the University of Nairobi, says: "There is definitely a search for alternatives. Countries that had been ignored by the West had to look for alternatives."

Dr Hassouna says the lesson that must be learnt is that marginalisation of certain states "is not an option any more." He argues that failed states have created a vacuum being exploited by non-state actors like al-Qaeda to spread terror.

Failed states pose danger

"Somalia is thought to be harbouring terrorists because it has no government. It is a failed state. So was Afghanistan. I think we must all learn that failed states pose great danger. We must build bridges because if we don't, we promote a dangerous option for ignored states."

The lecturer says poverty is fodder for terrorism and it is possible that people join terrorist organisations in a desperate search for survival.

"We can no longer have islands of prosperity in the middle of poverty. The real concern here is that the gap between the rich and the poor states has widened and we must close it otherwise no one is safe."

A Nairobi lawyer, Mr Mohammed Nyaoga, does not entirely agree that there is a void the terrorist organisations are trying to fill. But he concedes that ignoring failed states is a dangerous undertaking.

"Bin Laden acted as a donor to Afghanistan. If a failed state is ignored, there is chance for a terrorist 'donor' to come in with a lot of money and say 'I will bail you out, then I operate from here,'" the lawyer said.

But he says the agencies that serve as fronts for terrorists are not filling any gap. "Nobody has a monopoly over charity. The presence of Western donors never kept out those from the Islamic world."

He sees as a contradiction the fact that some agencies can claim to be in humanitarian activities and still spread mayhem.

"You cannot run a charitable organisation then at the same time front for terrorists. What is the point in giving help to somebody only to kill him."

The financiers of terrorist acts are not poor, the lawyer says, ruling out the suggestion that people are driven in to terrorism by poverty.

"It is possible that the rich with grudges can take advantage of the poor by asking them to undertake acts of terrorism. But even that is hard to accept because most terrorists are keen on suicide attacks. How does it benefit you to take Sh10 million because you are poor when you know you are going to commit suicide in the next minute? It is twisted logic."

The lawyer argues that what the world has witnessed are the fruits of extremism, a situation he terms as bad whether religious or political.

A US embassy official close to the investigations agreed that there is a link between failed states and the option for terrorism but rejected the idea that the terrorist agencies are filling a gap.

Our analysis have shown that in Afghanistan, there is a strong sense of communal identity and solidarity. The same is the case with Somalia. In both countries, loyalty is expressed towards the family, then to the community, including religious orientation, then to the city or province and only to the country much later. That makes it hard to deal with them as states in the modern sense."

The embassy official said terrorist groups are not necessarily filling a void. Most may just be taking advantage of Kenya's good communication network, coupled by weak policing.

"We must also understand Kenya's location against that of states associated with terrorism. There is evidence that throughout the 1990s, there were plans for expansion by terror groups in Egypt, Sudan and Somalia. And Kenya is a good ground for any group that wants rapid but secretive communications in the region."

The US, the official said, thinks the states of Eastern Africa have managed well to contain fundamentalists.

"The Islamic fundamentalists in Sudan, Egypt and Somalia would have dominated here if Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia had not kept them at bay. I believe the states will succeed."