Community activists from Kisii have advised sexual violence survivors against paying for the Kenya Police Medical Examination form, commonly known as P3.
Working under the International Rescue Committee (IRC’s) Peace Initiative Kenya (PIK) project, the activists warned Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) survivors from paying for the document which they said is against the law.
Led by PIK Kisii County Programmes Coordinator, Christine Opanga, the activists said sale of P3 forms to SGBV survivors remains a major impediment to seeking justice for survivors in the region.
Speaking at Itumbe Location chief's office during a one-day Gender-Based Violence (GBV) community awareness training targeting the chief's locational Advisory Council members and clan elders from the location, Opanga who took attendees through the children's Act 2011 and the Sexual Offences Act 2006.
Opanga who was responding the area chief Henry Mirera's concern over sale of P3 forms to the SGBV survivors in the area lamented that the practice continued working against the GBV survivors in the course of seeking for justice. This, she said, led to the collapse of the cases when filed in court due to lack of evidence to charge the perpetrators.
Mirera expressed fear that if the P3 forms which were legal documents supposed to be issued for free by government agencies, selling then for Sh1,000 to the SGBV survivors will hinder accessing justice through the courts.
“It is worrying that unsuspecting members of the public, particularly SGBV survivors from this region, continue being defrauded by corrupt police officers,” stated Opanga.
Opanga who is a trained paralegal observed that it is required, under the law, that all assault cases be documented in the P3 form. However, the survivor bears the cost of documenting, preserving and presenting the evidence in court.