public function action_signup()
{
$captcha = new Captcha; // Or new Captcha('alpha'), new Captcha('math'), ...
...
<label for="captcha"><?php echo $captcha; ?></label>
<br />
<input id="captcha" name="captcha" dir="ltr" title="Key in the charaters or answer the question above" type="text">
$valid = new Validate($_POST);
$valid->filter(TRUE, 'trim')
->rule('captcha', 'not_empty')
->rule('captcha', 'Captcha::valid');
Captcha docs from kohanaframework.org