kicker has invalid dependencies

I think it's rather the other way around:
e.g. kcontrol depends on kicker and therefor kcontrol gets removed when you remove kicker.
kde-systemsettings then depends on kcontrol, etc..

I can confirm that this is the case. It seems that there is a chain of dependencies here.

sudo apt-cache depends kcontrol | grep kicker
  Depends: kicker

shows that kcontrol does actually depend on kicker. Equally:

sudo apt-cache depends kde-systemsettings | grep kcontrol
  Depends: kcontrol

shows that kde-systemsettings depends on kcontrol and

sudo apt-cache depends konqueror | grep kcontrol
  Depends: kcontrol

shows that konqueror also depends on kcontrol. I haven't checked but I would guess that the other packages depend on konqueror. So it seems that kicker is used for more than just the kde panel. This might be a bug but it looks more like it is intentional

I meant to add, why are you trying to remove kicker? What is it you are trying to achieve?

Daniel, you're right of course.

Richard, I got annoyed at Kicker's interaction with active borders on multiple desktops (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdebase/+bug/108262) and have been experimenting with different ways of navigating the system without relying on Kicker. I wanted to remove it completely, couldn't find a way to turn it off, so figured I'd try removing it.

Kicker is dead in Intrepid/KDE 4.0.83. (Replaced by Plasma)
So we can close this bug now. :) One less beastie.