Kohana: Which alternatives are available?
This is perhaps the most asked question on SO with regard to PHP.
I would suggest that you read all of the very fine answers to all of the very fine questions that I found with this search: PHP Framework
This isn't a direct answer to your question, but my experience with Kohana has been that its documentation, while lacunary, is quite enough to get you started and that for everything else, a quick glance at the code itself usually tells you what you need to know without too much effort -- it's pretty well-commented, and well-organsied.
I've found development in Kohana to be fairly speedy so, even if you do value your time highly, you may find the initial investment pays off.
I would recommend Zend Framework
- Easy to learn
- Well documented
- MVC
- Very large, contains everything you may need