If there is a document that symbolises the inefficiency and archaic procedures associated with the police force, it is the P3 form.

This document is emerging as the biggest hindrance to justice in Nairobi and contributes to the increase in violent crime, as well as mob justice.

Put more bluntly, it is almost impossible to get a Kenya Police Medical Examination Form (P3) signed by the only medical doctor serving the province of about four million people.

You will take anywhere between one to two weeks to get Dr Zephania Kamau's signature on the form, by which time the perpetrators will most likely have erase their tracks. And the poorest, unable to grease the wheels of justice, are hardest hit and increasingly resorting to mob justice.

The entire Nairobi Province is served by one doctor, stationed at the traffic police offices on Ngong Road, near Kenyatta National Hospital, and spends most of his time in court, giving evidence. For any P3 to be presented to court as proof of harm, it must be signed by a police doctor.

Anyone hoping

Anyone hoping to secure a number on the queue must arrived at the station well before 4am, and this is no guarantee they would be served that day or even the next.

The Nation found Ms Lucy Waithera on the queue holding a slip of paper indicating she was number 59.

"I arrived here at 5am," said the mother of three who braved the chilly morning to travel to the city centre from crime-prone Githurai to look for the police doctor. "Now it is almost 11am and the doctor is not yet here." This was her third day at the station and she had learnt of the need to carry a blanket with her.

We learnt the doctor had several court cases that morning, so Ms Waithera and 100 other applicants just had to wait. But several had just given up and walked away. Normally, we gather, the officer, when available, attends to about 20 people, so Ms Waithera will have to go back another day.

"It's ridiculous, it is completely unacceptable," says Mutula Kilonzo, the Nairobi Metropolitan Development minister. "There's no reason anybody should have to wait even a day to get a P3, because it's a very simple, standard form, but doctors are not there to sign them. It's out of neglect as far as I'm concerned."

Researchers at the University of Nairobi recently blamed increasing violent crime in slums on an indifferent justice system.

During daytime

Waithera's sojourn did not just start here; it was two weeks ago when she was attacked, robbed and assaulted by a gang in Githurai 44. "I was helped by Good Samaritans to Kasarani Police Station where I reported the crime. I was, however, advised to go for treatment and come the next day for a P3 form because that office is only open during daytime."

She said she could identify one of her attackers, and feared he would disappear if he learnt she had reported to the police.

A vegetable hawker, Waithera spent a few more days saving money to see a private doctor and on the fourth day went back to Kasarani police for a P3 form. "I thought after presenting a medical report, that would be it and the police would go for the criminals. But here I was told the form has to be signed by the police doctor and that is why I'm here." She has already been warned against pursuing the issue or else the criminals will hunt her down.

But even after the form is finally signed, there's no guarantee the criminals will be arrested. She has to know where they are, call the police and provide them with transport.

Another woman victim of the same system, explained that at the police station, even after getting a P3 form signed, she was required to buy mobile phone air time for an officer, so that they could summon the suspect to the station. She had no money and has since dropped the case.

Another woman who claimed to have been battered by her husband found herself on the wrong side of the law. "After almost two weeks, I finally had the signed form but my rich husband had learnt of my intentions and somehow managed to get one, although he did not have even a scratch on his body. By the time I was presenting my form, he had already presented his to the same officer, and I was being threatened with arrest. I opted to drop the issue.

Experts say medical examination forms should be made widely available in hospitals to cut delays, and Amnesty International adds that the current system contravenes the Istanbul Protocol, which enshrines guidelines for investigating cases of alleged torture and for reporting findings to the Judiciary.

According to the international rights body, the case where P3 forms are only obtained in police stations has discouraged victims of torture and ill-treatment from seeking justice.

"Registered doctors, other than government ones, need to fully participate in the processing of a P3 form," said Dr Joshua Kivuva of the University of Nairobi's political science department. "This will cut delays."

The Nation also noticed that certain people did not have to queue, and were served on the spot. The queue is also the theatre for ambulance chasing lawyers, who have their agents working, especially on car accidents victims, to recruit them for legal representations. Those who accepted miraculously went through a shortened queue.

Police records, show that the Kenya Police Medical Examination form is a document that a complainant seeks from a police station in order to request medical examination by a medical officer of health in order to determine the nature and extent of bodily injury sustained by a complainant in assault cases.

Adducing evidence

While a police officer fills in the form requesting medical examination, a medical officer or practitioner gives the medical details of a complainant. Once processed, it must be returned to the police station for use in adducing evidence in court and becomes an exhibit once produced.

According to minister Kilonzo, there is urgent need for the Government to intervene because the country had trained medical officers working as far away as Australia, yet Nairobi was served by only one.

"We are losing that sort of brain to other countries," he said. "What's lacking is the scheme of service and a sense of career satisfaction that is required."

Efforts to talk to the police spokesman were fruitless.