Pastor Paul Mackenzie and his co-accused  have yet again put up a fight to secure their freedom through bail .

Through their lawyer Lawrence Obonyo, the  accused persons, who are facing 238 charges of manslaughter, are banking on the fact that circumstances have changed from the time when they were charged.

One the things they are using to support their release is the fact that several witnesses have given their testimonies in court unlike last year in April when the court first denied them bail.

Additionally, Obonyo argued that the number of suspects has reduced to 92 after 3 of them died while in custody.

The suspects also argue that they currently have probation reports which were unavailable when they were seeking their release last year. Obonyo noted that the probation report may only favour a couple of the suspects and not all of them.

“The court has not seen the probation reports at the time it made the ruling denying them bail in April last year. These reports were prepared in May, so they should be viewed as new documents that the court ought to consider,” the legal representative said.

Obonyo argues that Mackenzie and his co-accused are innocent until when they will be proved guilty.

Jami Yamina and Victor Owiti, who are in charge of the prosecution, however challenged the renewed bond application, insisting that there has been no change of circumstance from the time the accused persons were charged, to present, and instead pointed out that the matter is even more serious, now that the court has had chance to listen to part of the evidence against the accused persons.

They noted that the charges haven’t been amended or substituted for the court to rule otherwise on the new application. They further argued that the application had been generalised therefore making it difficult for the court to assess the accused persons on an individual basis.

“Bonds and bails are matters touching on individuals, yet this application has been made in a generalised manner, making it difficult for the court to consider the issue of bail,” Yamina argued.

“We have to consider the suspects’ safety. A significant number of bodies are yet to be collected  from the mortuary, and the victims are still healing. We are not certain will return to attend to the trial if they are released on bail,” he went on.

The court is expected to rule on the matter on March 26..