An Eregi Teachers Training College student has committed suicide by throwing himself into a sewage lagoon.

Thirty year-old David Lubanga was reported to have scaled the gate to the highly secured sewerage area and plunged into the seven-foot deep lagoon at around 6.40 am.

The college principal, Arthur Achola, said the deceased had been diagnosed with cerebral malaria two days to the death. He said Lubanga looked disturbed but the administration did not expect the matter to turn tragic.

"He left no message and the reasons for his action remain unknown. Maybe police could help unravel the matter," he said.

An unidentified girl who witnessed the incident on her way to a nearby primary school rushed back home to inform her mother who later reported the incident to the college.

"It is lucky that somebody in the neighbourhood witnessed the incident and reported to us otherwise it could have taken us long before realising what had happened," said Achola. Achola urged students to make use of the guiding and counselling lessons offered at the institution in case of personal problems.

The incident shocked students and workers and disrupted morning lessons. The student's body was retrieved by police with the help of students in a one-and-a-half hour exercise and taken to Western Provincial General Hospital mortuary, in Kakamega town.

The district police commander, Ahmed Mohammed, said police are treating the incident as suicide but investigations had been launched.