Combative Inverness dominated the first half hour after winning the physical battle, but they couldn't find the goal their play merited.
They first pressurised the home defence in the 11th minute after forcing Jamie Hamill into a poor header which fell to Ross McBain.
He fired a low cross-shot which only evaded both the far post and Richie Foran.
Filipe Morais was closest for the Highlanders when he found acres of space in the centre of the field and hit a good 30-yard shot which swerved narrowly past Alan Combe's left upright.
Foran had Inverness's best chance of the period on the half-hour mark after Killie had again given the ball away in their own half.
It was worked to Foran in the box, but he dragged his shot wide from a good position.
Jim Jefferies said before the game that star striker Kevin Kyle would be patched up to play like the movie El Cid, but he would have felt more like he was in a Rocky film such was the battering he took from Ross Tokely and Michael Fraser.
And the match looked more like a bar-room brawl in a western in the 38th minute following a nasty two-footed challenge by David Proctor on Garry Hay, the result of which was two bookings to either side.
The adrenalin burst wakened Kilmarnock and they could have gone in ahead at half-time, but David Lilley saw his header cleared off the line and Hamill's follow-up up header was tipped over by Fraser.
The score at half-time was enough to ensure Killie's survival, but the tension grew among the home fans and players as the second half began in the same fashion as the first.
However, Caley could still find no way through the resolute Killie defence and Combe was not called upon to make any save of note.
The tension was eased in the 80th minute when full-back Garry Hay reached the goalline and chipped a cross to the far post where Kyle was waiting to force the ball home for his seventh goal in four games.
Mehdi Taouil almost made it two in injury time but his shot came back off the post.