A Colin Nish hat-trick encased in a quarter-hour of Killie quality was enough to send them into second place in the SPL.
It was only in this short spell that any good football was played by either side in a scrappy encounter.
The first piece of quality football led to Killie's opener. Allan Johnston threaded the ball through the Livingston defence. Kris Boyd reached by-line and intelligently laid the ball back to Nish. There seemed to be little danger, but from wide of the area, the striker measured a glorious curling shot over goalkeeper Roddy McKenzie and in at the far post for his second goal in two games.
The Killie side visibly rose in confidence with the goal and added two more before the interval thanks to some shambolic defending from Paul Lambert's side. Nish had the freedom of the penalty area to nod home Gary Locke's cross from six yards out in the 35th minute, and was again unchallenged when Locke swung in another dangerous cross two minutes before the break to give McKenzie no chance.
If the crowd were expecting an avalanche of goals in the second half they were to be disappointed, thanks mainly to two outstanding saves from McKenzie.
Kilmarnock's Danny Invincibile broke the offside trap for Boyd to run in on goal, but the keeper reacted well to save his chipped effort. Then in the 64th minute he produced a stunning tip-over to deny Garry Hay from 30 yards.
Livingston showed some fight late in the game, and Paul Dalglish, the only bright light in Lambert's team, was unlucky to see his flick hit the underside of the bar and bounce clear.