upon a report on the forum i checked the ability to kick faction members in the mfactions member list by using the kick button.
as it turns out everyone can kick anybody out of a faction regardless of permission settings.
to reproduce
1 get two character into a new faction
2 open with the rank 4 member the members list and choose "kick" on the founder
3 the founder will be kicked out of the faction without being removed from the faction list